Ravenous shark ripped off her leg to kill her: Tourist dies in shark attack

On Monday, September 16, 2024, a thirty-year-old woman lost her life in a shark attack off the Canary Islands.

A German tourist died Monday evening after being attacked by a shark about 500 kilometers from the Spanish Canary Islands, sea rescue services told AFP.

Bite on the leg

The 30-year-old woman was bitten by a shark while she was sailing a catamaran Monday afternoon, 278 miles southwest of the island of Gran Canaria.

The tragedy occurred in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa: the young woman, who was sailing aboard the British catamaran "Dalliance Chichester", lost a leg when a shark attacked her.

Spanish emergency services were notified at 2:55 p.m. (12:55 p.m. GMT) that “medical evacuation” was required and, after requesting Moroccan help, they decided to send a helicopter and a Spanish army plane to come to the aid of the catamaran crew.

The victim boarded the helicopter at around 8:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) and died of cardiac arrest while being evacuated to hospital in Las Palmas – the capital of Gran Canaria –, rescue services said.

According to the specialist website vesselfinder.com, the "Dalliance Chichester", a 17-metre pleasure boat, left the port of Las Palmas on Saturday 14 September.

Shark attacks are very rare in the area

According to a study published in February by the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a database at the University of Florida (United States), shark attacks increased in 2023 across the world with 69 "unprovoked" shark bites worldwide, compared to 63 in 2022.

These attacks, more than half of which (36) took place in the United States, resulted in 10 deaths: Four deaths were recorded in Australia, two in the United States and one each in the Bahamas, Egypt, Mexico and France (in New Caledonia).

In its study, Isaf distinguishes between "unprovoked" of those called "provoked", namely bites occurring after a human intentionally approached a shark or swam in an area where bait is used to attract fish.

Only attacks "unprovoked" were counted in the report, after having been recorded via press articles.