12-year-old boy loses his arm after shark attack in Egypt

A mother, her son and their guide have been attacked by a shark in the Ras Mohamed Nature Reserve in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Ukraine’s State Agency for Tourism Development said: “The 12-year-old boy is still in intensive care after undergoing surgery, facing another one tomorrow. His mauled hand could not be saved.”

The mother has a number of severe wounds from the bites and her son lost part of his arm from below the elbow.

In 2010 there was a series of shark attacks in the Red Sea waters. A German woman died in December, just days after four tourists swimming there were bitten and left seriously injured.

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Following the five attacks in five days, the government closed off part of the beach for a week.

Five years passed with no reported attacks until 2015, when a 52-year-old German tourist swimming with his wife died after a shark bit his leg off in Al-Qusair, a city in eastern Egypt, also on the Red Sea coast.

In 2016 the government temporarily banned fishing near the Red Sea resort of Ain Sokhna after a shark attack on an Egyptian man meant he had to have his leg amputated.

In 2018 human remains were found on a beach close to Marsa Alam following an attack on a Czech tourist.