Russian man screams ‘papa’ as he is mauled to death by shark in Egypt

Witnesses heard saying shark ‘is eating his remains now’ in video of shocking attack

A Russian man has died after being mauled by a tiger shark off one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, with disturbing video taken from the beach appearing to show him screaming “papa” as the attack unfolded.

The 23-year-old Russian national had gone swimming in the waters off his resort near the city of Hurghada when a shark emerged underwater and grabbed him.

The attack forced the Egyptian authorities to close off a 74-kilometre (46-mile) stretch of the coastline, announcing it will remain off limits until Sunday.

Officials from the Russian Consulate in Hurghada identified the man as a Russian citizen. He has been name locally as Vladimir Popov.

His dad has since spoken of watching the attack from the shore.

“We went to the beach to relax,” Mr Popov, originally from Russia, told the 112 media outlet. “My son was attacked by a shark, it all happened in seconds.”

“What kind of help can you give? This meat grinder happened in 20 seconds, he was just dragged under the water.”

He added: “This is an absolutely ridiculous coincidence, because it is a safe beach. There are ships and yachts around. It’s never happened there. They usually attack on wild beaches. It’s just some kind of evil fate.”

A nearly minute-long video appearing to be of the brutal shark attack shows the man being suddenly pulled down into the water, only for him to resurface and desperately fight off the shark when suddenly the water around him goes red.

He also screams out “papa” and cries out loudly as the shark repeatedly circles and comes back in to attack. Later in the video a witness is heard saying “it is eating his remains now” as a small ship sails in the distance.

The environment ministry in Egypt later said it had caught the shark and was examining it in a laboratory to try to determine the reasons for the rare attack.

Images shared on social media showed the body of the bloodied shark lying on a sheet on land.

Shark attacks are rare in the Red Sea coastal regions. In 2022, two fatal attacks were seen in Hurghada within days, killing an Austrian and a Romanian tourist.

Tiger sharks are a large species that resides in tropical and temperate waters and are among the sharks most cited by the International Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks on humans.

Additional reporting by agencies