A hero diver has told how he fought off a giant tiger shark before it mauled his EU diplomat friend to death in front of him while the couple were on holiday in Egypt.
Gianluca Di Gioia, 48, from Rome, had been snorkelling on a beach opposite the glamorous Red Sea Sataya Resort on the coast of Marsa Alam before he was hit by a car.
With him was his friend Peppino Fappani, the only survivor of the brutal attack who managed to escape after fighting the beast.
talking to Corriere della SerraCristina, Fappani’s daughter, recounted a telephone conversation she had with her father after the terrible experience, in which he was hospitalized with deep bite wounds on his legs and arms.
‘I heard Gianluca shout ‘Help! Help!’, I thought he had been struck by an illness and was having difficulty returning to shore, so I started swimming towards him,’ Fappani recalled, as he continued to detail the hand-to-hand combat to his daughter.
The 69-year-old said: ‘Cristina, I didn’t realize that there was a shark that had attacked Gianluca, also because I didn’t see the shark, at least until I felt it bite my legs.
‘The shark bit me and wouldn’t let go even though I fought to the point of exhaustion to get it off of me.’
After the arduous and intense battle with the predator, Fappani explained that he managed to escape a “series of wounds on his legs and arm”, bites that required “numerous stitches and prophylaxis that will probably last until after the New Year.”
Di Gioia was in the sea with his friend Giuseppe Fappani, 69, in the photo on the left. His wife is pictured on the right.
EU official Gianluca Di Gioia is the victim of a shark attack in Marsa Alam, in the Red Sea.
The tragic incident took place on a beach in front of the Sataya Resort, one of the most glamorous on the Marsa Alam coast of the Red Sea.
But despite his heroic efforts, the tiger shark had set its sights on Di Gioia and killed him in front of his distraught friend and his wives, who watched helplessly from a nearby dock.
Fappani’s wife recalled the brutal attack to the newspaper yesterday after witnessing the bloody horror.
She said she saw her husband swim toward Di Gioia in a desperate attempt to scare away the shark before the beast sank its teeth into her arms and legs.
Then, in a surprising moment, Fappani allegedly managed to push the beast away for a brief moment before it returned furiously.
From the shore, as soon as she saw the couple in danger, Di Gioia’s wife, Laurence, who was also watching from the dock, “screamed for help and a boat left the beach.”
According to Cristina, her father ‘probably owes his life to some Egyptians who approached with a boat and managed to scare away the shark.’
The team then took his wounded body aboard and dumped him back on the beach.
‘Now my parents are just waiting to return to Italy. “It was a terrible experience,” he added.
The victim, Di Gioia, who worked in the European External Action Service, the diplomatic service of the European Union, had traveled to Egypt with his family and friends to celebrate his recent birthday and the New Year.
But the tragic incident took place while he and Fappani were swimming just 50 meters from the beach, in an area where the luxury resort’s jetty allows tourists access beyond the coral reef.
The couple were then rushed to a hospital in Port Ghalib, where Di Gioia tragically died and where Fappani is expected to be discharged today.
Fappani “was moving in shallow waters,” his wife reiterated yesterday to the mayor of Soncino, Giuseppe Gallina, who now, referring to his “quite reserved” citizen, speaks of a “heroic gesture.”
Di Gioia would have been attacked by a tiger shark while snorkeling
Di Gioia had been swimming just 50 meters from the beach, in an area where the resort’s jetty allows tourists access beyond the coral reef.
The Italian tourist’s injuries to his arms and legs were so serious that it was not known if he would survive the attack.
‘Ours is a small city of 7,500 inhabitants. We are all proud of him, we wait for him with open arms,’ he said.
The victim’s wife and son, who were also in the complex, were placed in the care of the tour operator Alpitour and the Italian embassy, to receive the necessary support after the attack.
The Egyptian authorities have opened an investigation into the ‘anomalous’ incident, while the Ministry of Environment and the Red Sea Governorate begin a series of investigations to reconstruct what happened.
The attack – according to the Quasir Prosecutor’s Office – occurred ‘in deep waters outside the bathing area’, that is, beyond the coral reef, which should prevent or at least make it difficult for the sharks to access the nearby area. to the beach
“These types of incidents usually occur in spring or summer,” said one of the local authorities after the case, highlighting how rare a shark attack is this season.
Following the shocking incident, authorities closed the pier and the stretch of sea where the EU diplomat was murdered.
It is now also likely that the Rome Prosecutor’s Office will open an investigation and, according to Corriere Della Sera, that Fappani could also be questioned by the Carabinieri.
Di Gioia was originally from Rome, but lived in France where he had worked for the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS) for twelve years.
He had arrived in Marsa Alam on December 11 to celebrate his birthday – December 21 – with his wife and several family members and friends.
According to local reports, before the attack he planned to stay in Egypt until the New Year.