Papa, save me – Father describes how he was forced to watch helplessly while a tiger shark mauled his son to death
A distraught Russian father has told of his horror at watching his son be mauled to death by a ‘meat grinder’ tiger shark at an Egyptian resort as he screamed out: ‘Papa, save me!’
Yury Popov was forced to watch helplessly from the shore as the predator circled his son Vladimir, 23, before dragging him under water in the resort of Hurghada.
Holidaymakers scrambled from the water as horrified onlookers called out to Vladimir to swim away from the shark before he was mauled to death.
The tiger shark was then caught and dragged to land by boat before it was killed.
‘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.’
The heartbroken father said there were no family members near his son to help in the water, though initial reports said the 23-year-old’s girlfriend had managed to flee the attack.
‘What kind of help can you give? This meat grinder happened in 20 seconds, he was just dragged under the water,’ Mr Popov said.
The father said: ‘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.’
Vladimir had been living with his father in Egypt for several months before the horrific attack. Mr Popov said he would cremate his son and return his ashes to their native Russia.
Video shows the tiger shark being caught and dragged ashore by a boat following the attack, and it appeared to be alive before being clubbed to death.
The Egyptian authorities confirmed the shark has been handed over for research to find out the causes of its behaviour and identify whether the animal is related to one that ’caused several previous accidents’.
Video taken by horrified onlookers shows Vladimir desperately shouting ‘Papa, Papa’ as the predator circled him in the water before launching the attack.
‘Children swam [in the area where the shark attacked] very often – there were children’s slides,’ another witness said.
‘All this happened not far from a descent into the sea, next to the ladder, used by everyone who went into the water.
‘At one point, the shark appeared, and immediately bit this man. Rescuers saw this and began to start the boat. He tried to swim away from the shark, but he couldn’t.
‘And the shark dragged the body for two hours. It constantly dragged him under the water.’
Witnesses said the victim’s girlfriend had been in the water at the time of the attack. Russian reports say she is safe and has returned to Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of a citizen from a shark attack.