In a shark attack at a popular tourist destination in Egypt, two women died within 650 feet of one another.
The first victim was a 68-year-old Austrian retiree.
According to eyewitnesses, a dead corpse was discovered on a reef in Sahl Hasheesh, south of Hurghada, on Friday and was taken from the water by Egyptian police today.
Although the woman’s name is unknown, it is assumed that she was a Romanian visitor visiting the adults-only Premiere Le Reve five-star hotel.
Elisabeth Sauer, a local councillor in Kramsach, Tyrol, from 1998 to 2004, was identified by the Green Party as the first woman to be attacked at roughly the same time as the other tourist.
She said to her companion, an Austrian with Egyptian ancestry, “I’ll go back in for a second” as she was moving through shallow water with a snorkel and fins.
In Sahl Hasheesh bay, in the Red Sea, south of Hurghada, video then captures her urgently trying to swim to safety while the water around her becomes fiery red.
No one went in to save her as terrified bystanders sought to divert the predator, which is thought to be either a Mako or an Oceanic whitetip shark.
She was then transferred to the exclusive Nile Hospital in Cairo, according to an Egyptian health official, where she was unable to be revived and is thought to have passed away from “painful shock,” most likely a heart attack.
She had been there for a month with her Egyptian partner, according to the Austrian embassy in Cairo, and was scheduled to leave today.
Reporters were informed by representatives of the Red Sea Governorate yesterday that Hurghada and the attack area would be off-limits to all maritime activities, including fishing and diving.
The beach has been abandoned since the fatalities, but it will probably open again tomorrow.
The same anonymous Russian visitor who captured the terrible footage after the first attack also shared a new video of the scene of the second tragic occurrence.
He pointed out the small lagoon where we first saw the shark and explained it using his finger.
Moreover, we were unaware that it was a shark.
He gestures toward the pier and says, “This is where the attack I filmed [earlier] was.
“And around here, the body of the second woman was dragged out.”
Using Facebook to write “We grieve the loss of our Elisabeth Sauer (68), who died in a horrible bathing accident in Egypt,” the Die Grünen Kramsach statement read.
We send our deepest sympathies to the family, especially to Carola. Elisabeth was a devoted Green from the moment she arrived in Kramsach.
She served as a councilor from 1998 to 2004 and was a GR candidate for many years. Let her soul rest in peace.
“We would want to take this occasion to send our heartfelt sympathies and love.” She had a kind, humane way about her that will live on in memory.
Numerous guests who witnessed the initial attack on the Austrian woman who was snorkeling while wearing flippers reported there were no lifeguards as swimmers ran from the water.
“I witnessed the shark moving and twisting the woman in the water,” the Russian eyewitness claimed. She was twisted in the water, but I was unable to capture it on camera.
He had previously described how the woman was initially “fighting off [the shark] with her hands, but supposedly the shark bit off her leg with a flipper first, then her hand, which it flung on the corals.”
She was already seated on the corals and exposing her leg and hand. She had just experienced shock.
She didn’t even yell, cry, or do anything else.
The Austrian woman, who had somehow made it back to land, was given CPR by emergency personnel, but she passed away in an ambulance a short time later.
‘Our Embassy in Cairo is in close communication with the family, including her partner (an Austrian of Egyptian heritage), who witnessed the awful scenario, and her daughter,’ an Austrian embassy official told the MailOnline.
“The Austrian Embassy is in contact with the local authorities as well as the relatives of the deceased.”
It was reported that she was attacked while walking within the designated bathing area not far from the beach, and it is still unknown how the shark got so near to her.
On camera, onlookers on a nearby pier record the woman’s attempt to survive and comment on her situation.
Where are the rescuers? is what a group of Russian vacationers can be heard asking.
She’s covered in blood, f*** that. Holy s***.
‘Where’s the rescue team? ‘
For goodness’ sake.
‘ Lifeguards? What happened to the lifeguards? She’s f***ing going to die!
An Egyptian health official reported that the 68-year-old woman, who had lost both a leg and an arm, passed away immediately after being brought to the exclusive Nile Hospital in Hurghada.
The official stated that she was barely conscious when she was brought in on Friday and that attempts to revive her by medical personnel had been unsuccessful.
Due to his lack of authorization to speak to reporters, the official spoke only under the condition of anonymity.
The Red Water province’s governor closed the region for three days and outlawed any “sea activities,” including as diving, snorkeling, wind surfing, and kiteboarding.
Additionally prohibited from the waters off Hurghada were fishing vessels. According to a local report RIA Novosti, “The woman died in the ambulance from excruciating shock.”
While local Egyptian newspapers have identified the animal as an Oceanic whitetip shark, reports from the news agency AFP and Austrian news agencies indicate that a Mako shark was responsible for the attack.
Today, the Ministry of the Environment revealed that a team of experts was looking into the attacks, which are unusual for the region.
In contrast to many European vacation spots, the resort is well-liked by Russian visitors and is still accessible to them despite the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian tourists were advised by their consulate general in Hurghada to use caution when near water and strictly abide by Egyptian authorities’ prohibitions on swimming, diving, and fishing in open waters and off the coast.
To “strictly observe the signals from hotel staff and the coast guards,” they were instructed.
Although shark attacks are uncommon in Egypt, the Red Sea is home to over 44 different species of the fish, some of which are lethal.
The most prevalent are the 6-foot-long, sharp-toothed grey reef sharks.
They swim in shallow water that is no deeper than 60 meters.
A shark unexpectedly surfaced near Aqaba in June 2021 as a tandem parasailer, a 37-year-old Jordanian man, was hovering above the ocean. The shark bit the guy’s leg.
In addition to severing tendons, tearing muscles, and breaking many bones, the attack caused the victim to lose a portion of the back of his foot.
A German woman was mauled by a shark in the Red Sea in December 2020 while she was scuba diving before instructors brought her to safety.
The 42-year-old woman was attacked by an ocean whitetip shark in Egypt’s Marsa Alam.
According to Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi, the tourist was transferred to a hospital where she is recovering in a “stable state.”
A 12-year-old Ukrainian child on vacation in Egypt and his tour guide suffered limb losses as a result of an oceanic whitetip shark attack in October 2020.
Following the horrific assault at the Red Sea resort Ras Muhammad, the two required amputations.
Additionally, over the course of five days at Sharm el Sheikh in 2010, five shark attacks occurred.
The injured tourists were three Russians, one Ukrainian, and one German.
Renata Seifert, a 71-year-old regular at the resort who was from Germany, passed away from her wounds.