Shark in Red Sea attacks still on loose
A shark, linked to at least three of the five attacks on humans in the Red Sea last week, is still on the loose, Egypt`s Ahram Online portal said on Friday.
A group of Egyptian divers, accompanied by a group of foreign ecologists and biologists, said a single female whitetip shark badly injured two Russian tourists last week. They also link the shark to Sunday`s deadly attack on a German tourist near the luxury Na`ama Bay resort area.
"Our investigation revealed that the same whitetip shark was spotted by divers in the vicinity, shortly before the attacks on tourists took place," the website quoted a German whitetip shark expert, Elke Bojanowski, as saying.
She added that the shark was still roaming off the Sharm El Sheikh coast.
"We think that this animal somehow began associating people with food, and this is the reason for the attacks. White sharks generally do not attack people, but if a shark regularly receives food while people are swimming around, it may begin treating them as a possible food source," she said.
Five shark attacks, in which three Russians and one Ukrainian tourist were injured and a 70-year-old German tourist was killed, were registered near Sharm El Sheikh last week. Following the attacks, the Egyptian Tourism Ministry closed all beaches in the resort to ensure the security of tourists.
Hotel owners in Sharm el-Sheikh have marked a decrease in the number of travelers following the German tourist`s death on Sunday. However, a spokesman for Egyptair said no flights have been canceled so far.
The Egyptian authorities also said they were ready to take tourists to safe beaches for free to compensate for the inconveniences following the closure of most areas off the popular Sharm el-Sheikh resort.
They also said they would pay $50,000 in compensation to all victims, but failed to guarantee that such attacks would not take place in the future.
Local authorities said last week two sharks believed to be behind the attacks had been caught and killed.
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