The heartbroken father who watched helplessly while his son was mauled to death by a tiger shark off the coast in Egypt last week said the brutal attack was his “destiny.”
Yury Popov met with Egyptian officials this week after his 23-year-old son, Vladimir, was fatally attacked by a tiger shark in the Red Sea off Hurghada on June 9, The Sun reported.
“The fate of my son is tragic,” Popov said this week, though he noted that the mauling could have “happened anywhere” and said it was Vladimir’s “destiny.”
Footage of the vicious attack showed Vladimir, who had been living in Egypt for several months, screaming for his father as the water around him turned red with blood.
Shortly after Vladimir was killed, fishermen retrieved half of his remains from the water.
Parts of his chest, head, and at least one hand were later found inside the shark when it was captured and bludgeoned by traumatized onlookers.
Egyptian officials have since agreed to release Vladimir’s remains to his father, who will have them cremated and returned to Russia, The Sun said.
The shark that attacked him is set to be mummified and displayed in a local museum.
Experts are now speculating that the vicious female tiger shark was pregnant and may have been involved in two other fatal maulings last year.
“Last year there was a pregnant tiger shark. She became pregnant again and since she cannot fully chase fish for ordinary prey, she again came, remembering a place where there was easy prey,” marine biologist Dmitry Orlov told the outlet.
