The two women savaged by sharks in Egypt this weekend could have been killed by the same bloodthirsty creature, it has been claimed.
Elisabeth Sauer, 68, was killed on Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sahl Hasheesh, Egypt.
Then on Sunday, a Romanian woman was found dead as her lifeless body was discovered close to where the first attack was carried out.
They died in separate attacks within 600m of each other.
Overfishing and "shark feeding" experiences for tourists are feared to be driving the deadly predators closer to the shores, it has been claimed.
Sam Purkis, the chair of the Department of Marine Geosciences at the University of Miami, says it was "possible" that the same shark was involved.
"Most sharks are pelagic - open-water - and humans would never normally overlap with them, but the Red Sea is different," the expert added to the Sun Online.
"I was in the Red Sea in 2020 to tag sharks for conservation purposes. We spent seven weeks searching, and in that time, only found four. Humans are bad for sharks, they want fatty creatures like seals and tuna. We are like a bony chicken wing with no sauce on in comparison."
Tragic Mrs Sauer was seen swimming back to a pier after her arm and leg were bitten off.
The water was red from her blood. She died afterwards from nervous shock in an ambulance, say reports.
She was seen walking in shallow water while using a snorkel with fins not far from the beach.
She told her partner, an Austrian of Egyptian descent, "I'll go back in for a moment".
Elisabeth, who was a local councillor from 1998 to 2004, is believed to have one daughter.
Egyptian authorities have said that a Mako shark was responsible for her death.
The body of the yet unnamed Romanian woman in her 40s - “disfigured” by a shark attack - was found on coral at least two days after she was reported missing.
Hundreds of tourists had witnessed the attack.
They complained there were no lifeguards as swimmers fled the sea.
“We ask Russian citizens to remain vigilant when in the water, and strictly follow the bans imposed by the Egyptian authorities on swimming, diving and fishing on the high seas and off the coast,” tourists were told by their consulate-general in Hurghada.
They were told to “strictly observe the signals from hotel employees and the coast guards”.
