A German tourist died after being bitten by a shark on Monday while sailing off Spain Canary Islandsthe coast guard said.
The 30-year-old woman lost a leg in the attack and later died of a heart attack while being transported in a Spanish rescue helicopter, a coastguard spokesman told AFP.
She was sailing in a British catamaran in the Atlantic about 278 nautical miles southwest of the island of Gran Canaria when the shark struck. She was attacked while swimming next to the catamaran, Reuters reported.
Emergency services received an alert at 1255 GMT calling for a medical evacuation and dispatched a military plane and helicopter after also contacting the Moroccan coast guard.
The woman was taken aboard the helicopter in the evening around 1800 GMT and was on her way to hospital in the city of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria when she died, the spokesman said.
Boat tracking website vesselfinder.com indicated that the boat, Dalliance Chichester, had left the port of Las Palmas on September 14.
Shark attacks are rare, with a total of 69 confirmed unprovoked attacks worldwide and 14 deaths were reported last yearaccording to the International Shark Attack File, administered by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the American Elasmobranch Society. The report noted that a “disproportionate” amount of people died of shark bite in Australia last year compared to other countries, and Australia accounted for around 22% of the world’s unprovoked shark attacks in 2023.
The fatal attack comes less than a month after a shark killed a 16-year-old high school student in Jamaica.
In July, a the surfer lost his leg after a great white shark attacked him in Australia. The month before that, surfers Tamayo Perry died after sustaining fatal injuries in a shark attack off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
In January, a young fisherman dives for scallops killed by a shark off the Pacific coast of Mexico.