Russian man goes swimming in Egypt's Hurghada, tourists watch a shark eat him alive in viral video

A Russian man was eaten alive by a shark in the Egyptian resort town of Hurghada, as tourists watched in helplessness. A video of the scary shark attack has gone viral on social media.

Hurghada is on the Red Sea, and is a sea resort town famous with tourists from all over the world. 

Russia's Consulate General in Hurghada and two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on June 8 that the man was killed by a tiger shark.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Egypt's Environment Ministry said that the man was killed by a tiger shark, but refrained from revealing any details about the victim. A team from the ministry and other authorities later captured the shark. The statement also said that there was a ban on swimming, snorkelling or any other water activities in the area.

A diver rushed to the victim soon after a lifeguard raised an alarm, but was not able to reach the victim on time.

The video of the attack has since gone viral on social media (viewer discretion advised).

recent shark shark in egypt pic.twitter.com/xvO0xIGJNn

— clips that go hard (@clipsthatgohard) June 8, 2023

The tiger shark was later captured.

Reuters reported that Russia's TASS news agency said that the person was a 24-year-old Russian man who lived in Egypt, and was not a tourist.

The Russian consulate also urged Russian tourists to follow the existing bans on swimming and other water activities.

Tiger sharks usually reside in the warm tropical and temperate waters, and are infamous for unprovoked attacks on humans.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's two major sea resort towns on the Red Sea, the other being Sharm-El-Sheikh. There are coral reefs that dot the area and both the sea resorts are popular with tourists.