Sharks killed two female swimmers within hours of each other near a resort in Egypt’s Red Sea, officials said Sunday.
Video showed Friday’s horrific attack on one of the victims, a 68-year-old Austrian — with an onlooker acknowledging bluntly, “She’s going to f–king die,” the Times of Israel reported.
The woman, identified as Elisabeth Sauer, and a Romanian lady in her 40s, were separately found mutilated less than half a mile away from each other near the popular tourist area of Sahl Hasheesh.
Sauer was swimming near the resort when the Mako shark struck, ripping off one of her arms and a leg, the outlet said.
Video showed her swimming away from the shark and toward tourists who threw her a flotation device as the water filled with blood. The tourists complained of the lack of lifeguards during the horror.
Once she was brought to safety, there were attempts to resuscitate her, but she was taken to a hospital and died.
A source told Reuters that Sauer had been living in Egypt for five years with her Egyptian husband. Austria’s foreign ministry confirmed to AFP “the death of an Austrian citizen in Egypt” without providing further details.
The identity of the second victim is still unconfirmed.
Red Sea Gov. Amr Hanafi ordered the closure of all beaches in the area for three days after the attacks.
Shark attacks are considered rare in the area but have increasingly occurred in recent years. A 12-year-old Ukrainian male tourist lost his arm and leg in an attack in 2020.
In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach. A similar attack killed a German tourist in 2015.
In 2010, a spate of five attacks in five days unusually close to the shore of tourist hotspot Sharm el-Sheikh killed one German and injured four other foreign tourists.
With Post wires
