Two sharks could be on the loose in the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
International shark experts from the U.S. Experts who have flown to Egypt after a series of attacks last week say the pattern of bite marks on the victims’ bodies indicates that there were two sharks involved.
British man escapes shark attack in Sharm el-Sheikh
Endangered sharks killed in Egypt
It was previously thought that a lone rogue shark was behind the death of a 70-year-old German woman on Sunday and the mauling of four other tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh over the past week.
A short fin mako shark captured last week had been forensically identified as the culprit behind last Wednesday’s attack on swimmers from Russia and the Ukraine.
But based on the patterns of bite marks on the victims’ bodies it appears to experts that have flown to Egypt that there were two sharks involved.
Witnesses say that the latest attack was carried out by a whitetip so scientists are being forced to confront the likelihood that sharks from two different species have suddenly developed man-killing tendencies.
“Our best case scenario was of a single shark that would move out of the area, solving the problem,” Elke Bojanowski, a German expert on Red Sea sharks involved in the international hunt for rogue predators, told the Daily Telegraph.
“But if there was more than one then we have to look for a trigger that is influencing the sharks’ behaviour and it may be impossible to find.
“If we don’t have a clue what the trigger is then what are we to do?”
The experts also claim that tour guides throwing out bait to bring the predators closer may have lured the sharks to shore.
Another theory is that sharks have been drawn to the area by the crew of a livestock-transporting ship that dumped dead animals overboard. A passing transport ship recently threw dead sheep in the waters.
In a chilling echo of the Steven Spielberg film, Jaws, the German woman was killed in front of horrified swimmers on Sunday in the shallows of a supposedly safe, netted off area.
