A Russian man has died after being mauled by a tiger shark off one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, with disturbing video taken from the beach appearing to show him shouting ‘daddy’ as the attack unfolded.
The 23-year-old Russian citizen had gone swimming in the waters off his resort near the city of Hurghada when a shark swam underwater and grabbed him.
The attack forced Egyptian authorities to close a 74-kilometer (46-mile) stretch of coastline, saying they would remain off-limits until Sunday.
Officials from the Russian consulate in Hurghada identified the man as a Russian citizen but did not release his name.
The nearly minute-long video, which appears to be of the brutal shark attack, shows the man suddenly knocked into the water, only to resurface and desperately fight the shark when the water around him suddenly turns red.
He also screams “Daddy” and calls out loudly as the shark repeatedly circles and comes back to attack. Later in the video, a witness is heard saying “it’s eating his remains now” as a small ship sails off in the distance.
Egypt’s environment ministry later said it had captured the shark and was examining it in a laboratory to try to determine what caused the rare attack.
Images shared on social media showed the shark’s bloodied body lying on a sheet on land.
Shark attacks are rare in the coastal areas of the Red Sea. In 2022, Hurghada saw two fatal attacks within days in which an Austrian and a Romanian tourist were killed.
Tiger sharks are a large species that live in tropical and temperate waters and are among the most cited sharks on the International Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks on humans.