A shark kills tourists and injures another when it attacks off the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt

A shark attack on Egypt's Red Sea coast killed one tourist and injured another, authorities said Sunday, with a source in Italy's foreign ministry identifying both as Italians.

“Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the north of Marsa Alam, which resulted in the injury of one and the death of the other,” said the Ministry of Environment in Egypt in a statement.

A source working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy told AFP that the man killed was a resident of Rome, 48. The injured man was 69 years old.

Both were taken to a hospital in Port Ghalib, 30 kilometers north of Marsa Alam, the Egyptian ministry said.

Authorities closed the area to swimming for two days following the incident, which the department said occurred in “deep water outside the swimming area.”

The Red Sea is a major tourist destination for marine life which makes it popular with divers. It is also an important employer and source of foreign currency in Egypt, a country of 107 million people trying to get out of the worst economic crisis.

Last month, at least four people died when a huge wave hit again the submarine capsized carrying more than 30 tourists of various nationalities from Marsa Alam.

Deadly shark attacks are a perennial phenomenon in Egypt's Red Sea, where marine experts warn unregulated construction, overfishing, and reckless tourism practices are contributing to changing shark habitats and behavior.

In June 2023, a shark attack killed a Russian man near the Red Sea city of Hurghada.

In 2022, two women, one Austrian and one Romanian killed in a shark attack within one week from the shores of the Red Sea of ​​Egypt.

In 2020, a teenager A Ukrainian boy lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg from a shark attack in the same area.

In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark on the coast of the Red Sea. A similar attack killed a German tourist in 2015.

Number of fatal shark attacks doubled worldwide in 2023, with a disproportionate number in Australia, according to the International Shark Attack File – a database of global shark attacks run by the University of Florida.