A German tourist has been killed in a shark attack near a beach in Egypt’s eastern Red Sea province, according to a medical official.
“The 53-year-old tourist succumbed to his wounds after being attacked by a shark while swimming near a beach in the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam,” Hossam Gamil, head of the province’s ambulance service, the official told The Anadolu Agency.
The tourist’s remains have been transferred to the morgue and an investigation into the incident is currently underway, Gamil said.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the deceased and his wife were guests of a Marsa Alam hotel and that a he had fallen prey to a shark that bit off his leg, which led to his eventual death, he added.
Similar incidents have taken places off Red Sea beaches in Egypt, which – at the time – had a negative impact on tourism, one of the country’s main foreign currency sources.
In 2009, a French tourist was killed near Marsa Alam after a shark bit off her leg.
The following year, Three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist sustained severe injuries from a shark attack near the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, located at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
Following the attacks, the Egyptian government adopted a series of measures to ensure the safety of marine recreational activities for swimmers and scuba divers.
These measures included requiring hotels and dive centers to assign a shark watcher at beaches known to have frequent shark sightings and inform visitors to evacuate the area if a shark is spotted.
The watchers were also tasked with reporting any shark sighting to the authorities in order to conduct a combing operation and ensure the departure of the shark.
The government also required hotels and dive centers to report any shark sighting during any diving trip.
Political and security-induced turmoil has badly affected Egypt’s tourism sector, which used to bring in billions of dollars in revenue and provide jobs for millions of Egyptians.
Egypt’s tourism revenue amounted to $7.5 billion in 2014, up from $5.9 billion in 2013, according to the Tourism Ministry.
The government hopes the tourism sector can bring in 20 percent of its annual foreign currency needs.
Source: Anadolu Agency
