Shark experts flock to Egypt

Three US shark experts are flying to Egypt to try to help explain what is behind a series of shark attacks that have killed one tourist and injured four others over the past week.

As British holiday companies cancelled all watersports and boat trips in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, there were unconfirmed reports that swimmers were forced to flee from the water after a shark was spotted close to the beach.

A team of American shark experts is heading to Egypt to help determine what is behind a Jaws-style series of attacks that have killed one tourist, injured four others and cleared Red Sea beaches of swimmers, The Guardian says.

Shark attacks at Egypt's Red Sea resorts, famed for their reef diving, are rare. The attacks on snorkellers and swimmers over the past week at Sharm el-Sheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, are believed to involve two oceanic whitetip sharks, which normally do not get close to beaches.

The attacks turned fatal on Sunday when a shark tore the arm off an elderly German swimmer, killing her almost immediately. Days earlier a shark badly mauled three Russians and a Ukrainian, The Press Association reports.