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via Imago

via Imago

When it comes to beaches, Egypt is incredibly gifted. Every year, vacationers flock to the coastline of Egypt to take a dip in the clear waters. However, vacationers in Egypt received a horrific shock recently. Attendees at a popular beach resort witnessed the brutal mauling of a fellow tourist by a shark while the victim was swimming in the oceans of Egypt.

The incident took place about 30 meters away from the shoreline, near the Dream Beach resort hotel in Hurghada. As a consequence, plenty of tourists observed the shark attack. The video of the attack also went viral on social media. As a result, panic escalated among the masses, with some even vowing not to step into the ocean again.

Shark attacks might put off people from swimming in the sea

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A woman running a Twitter handle by the name @stephanie_co239 recently took to the social media platform to reveal certain details about the shark attack that took the life of a Russian man, identified as Vladimir Popov, in Egypt. She revealed the location of the attack, which was ‘Dream Beach’, and also made a vow. In the caption to the post, she wrote, “But this is where it took place – Dream Beach – I’m never going in the f**king ocean again.

The 23-year-old Russian national had gone swimming near the waters of the ‘Dream Beach Resort’ when a tiger shark emerged from the water and caught the unfortunate vacationer in its mighty jaws. In a gut-wrenching video that was taken from the resort located on the coast of Egypt’s Red Sea, it appeared that the victim was screaming “papa” repeatedly as the tiger shark proceeded to savagely mangle him. The saddening attack prompted the authorities to close down the entire 46-mile stretch of the coastline. As it was earlier announced, they would be cordoning it off till Sunday.

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According to the Independent, his father, who felt helpless about the entire situation, said, “What kind of help can you give? This meat grinder happened in 20 seconds. He was just dragged under the water.” The environment ministry of Egypt revealed that they had caught the shark to examine the reason for the unprovoked attack. The victim’s father expressed his outrage and surprise at the death of his son, saying that Dream Beach was “safe” and “It’s never happened there.” However, is that really true?

The incidents of shark attacks in Egypt

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A mauling by sharks is usually a rare occurrence in the Red Sea. But the Hurghada region saw two shark attacks within a span of a couple of days, both of them fatal. The Florida Museum of Natural History maintains an International Shark Attack File (ISAF). In this database, they cited most often tiger sharks as the predator in unprovoked shark attacks. An unprovoked shark ambush is a phenomenon generally considered as being rare, with only 57 occurrences recorded worldwide in 2022.

Although, even when it comes to global figures, Egypt, as it turns out, has a higher incidence of such onslaughts than other countries. Out of these unprovoked attacks, fatal ones are even rarer, with only 5 in 2022, according to ISAF. Out of the 5 unprovoked shark attack-related deaths in 2022, 2 occurred in Egypt, which is the highest in the world.

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In comparison, out of the 41 unprovoked shark attacks USA in 2022, only 1 turned out to be fatal. And in Australia, 0 out of 9 unprovoked bites turned out to be fatal. With figures like these, it seems like the panic among tourists might be justified.