Egypt has suspended all activities in the vicinity of the popular diving spot Sharm El-Sheikh's Ras Mohammed after a shark attack left several people injured, during a snorkeling activity.

According to an official statement on Tuesday, a task group, formed by Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, said that two Ukrainian tourists, a mother and her son, as well as an accompanying tour guide were among those injured in the shark attack at the protectorate’s Shark Reef diving spot.

The shark attacked the group again as they made an attempt to swim towards the launch carrying out the diving trip, injuring two more.

According to the task group, the attack was carried out by an Oceanic whitetip shark, which they estimated was the size of two meters.

“The minister has decided to suspend all human activities in the vicinity of the attack in accordance to present global practice in shark attacks on humans,” the statement read.

It also said that a video shot underwater in the area of the attack showed the shark's “abnormal behavior characterized by hostilities against humans.”

The ministry said the task group continues to carefully carry out duties to determine the reason behind the shark’s hostilities.

While rare, Egypt has seen several shark attacks in the past years, the latest being a shark attack that killed a Czech tourist off the Red Sea coast of Marsa Alam in 2018.

The 2018 attack was among other fatal shark attacks in Egypt since a string of maulings in 2010 that killed a German woman and wounded three Russian tourists in another Red Sea resort near Sharm El-Sheikh.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/389312.aspx