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RED SEA RAGE
Urgent Brit holiday warning over Hurghada shark attack as 46 miles of beaches are shut and tourists banned from sea
A 46-MILE stretch of coastline has been shut in Egypt after a tourist was mauled to death by a 10ft tiger shark in the Red Sea.
Authorities in Hurghada said the sea will remain off limits with a ban on swimming, snorkelling and other water sports until Sunday.
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Vladimir Popov, 23, from Russia, was dragged under the water and killed by the "meat grinder" shark off the coast of the resort city on Thursday.
Popov's distraught dad Yury watched from the shore as his son desperately screamed "papa, papa" while the predator pounced on him.
Shocking footage later showed the beast being hauled out of the sea on a small boat before being dumped on the beach and brutally beaten.
Egypt's environment ministry said a team had captured the shark "to inspect it" - saying it had displayed "abnormal behaviour".
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Following the fatal attack, the ministry announced a two-day ban on water activities starting on Friday.
The UK Foreign Office advice states: "While rare, there have been a number of shark attacks involving tourists in the Red Sea region."
And the Russian consulate urged tourists to be vigilant in the water and stick to any swimming bans imposed by local authorities.
Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, including Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, are popular with European tourists.
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Sharks are common in the area - and there have been a number of attacks in recent years.
Yet in July last year, two women were mauled to death by a shark within 600 metres of each other near Hurghada.
A 68-year-old female tourist died after losing an arm and a leg in an attack while swimming in the sea.
Two days later a Romanian woman was also found dead after a shark attack.
Experts believe the killer shark behind two fatal attacks on swimmers in Egypt was "sex-crazed".
Specialists from the Red Sea protectorates and Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association said the attacks could have been linked to the mating and egg-laying season.
It occurs from mid-April to the end of July and can cause sharks to behave violently.
Male sharks become so aggressive that the females will often avoid them after mating, while alphas are also known to battle with each other for breeding rights, according to studies.
Tiger sharks are among the sharks most cited by the International Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks on humans.
In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach after a similar attack killed a German tourist in 2015.
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And in 2010, a spate of five attacks in five days close to the shore of tourist hotspot Sharm el-Sheikh killed one German and injured four other foreign tourists.
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