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Two sharks suspected of mauling four tourists caught in Red Sea (Update 1)

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Two sharks suspected of mauling four swimmers were caught on Thursday near the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian media reported.

Two sharks suspected of mauling four swimmers were caught on Thursday near the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian media reported.

The first predator, a 2.25-meter adult whitetip shark, suspected of attacking a group of divers 40 km off the coast, was tracked down and captured on Thursday morning in a large-scale effort involving 12 environment ministry specialists and two boats.

The shark was "identified" by an Egyptian diver who rescued one of the tourists. He recognized the predator's damaged fin. The shark will be sent to a taxidermist and then put on display in the Ras Mohammed National Park some 20 kilometers from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The second shark suspected of mauling an elderly Russian woman not far from her hotel was caught later on Thursday. Additional research will be carried out to confirm that the second shark attacked people.

Egyptian environmentalists will continue their search off the Sharm el-Sheikh coast.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism has temporarily closed all beaches in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Hesham Gabr, who heads the country's Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS), urged tourists to remain calm, saying that shark attacks are an extremely rare occurrence at Red Sea resorts, visited by about 3 million people each year.

Director of Sinai Conservation Mohammed Salem said on Wednesday that the uncontrolled fishing in the popular diving areas had left sharks without food and forced them to attack people.

According to the International Shark File, which has a global shark attack database, there have only been nine reports of attacks by oceanic whitetip sharks on humans since records began in 1580, and only one of them was fatal.

CAIRO, December 2 (RIA Novosti) 

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