Shark in Red Sea attacks still on loose

A group of Egyptian divers, accompanied by a group of foreign ecologists and biologists, said a single female whitetip shark badly injured two Russian tourists last week. They also link the shark to Sunday's deadly attack on a German tourist near the luxury Na'ama Bay resort area.

"Our investigation revealed that the same whitetip shark was spotted by divers in the vicinity, shortly before the attacks on tourists took place," the website quoted a German whitetip shark expert, Elke Bojanowski, as saying.

She added that the shark was still roaming off the Sharm El Sheikh coast.

"We think that this animal somehow began associating people with food, and this is the reason for the attacks. White sharks generally do not attack people, but if a shark regularly receives food while people are swimming around, it may begin treating them as a possible food source," she said.

Five shark attacks, in which three Russians and one Ukrainian tourist were injured and a 70-year-old German tourist was killed, were registered near Sharm El Sheikh last week. Following the attacks, the Egyptian Tourism Ministry closed all beaches in the resort to ensure the security of tourists.

They also said they would pay $50,000 in compensation to all victims, but failed to guarantee that such attacks would not take place in the future. Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version