A German tourist died after being bitten by a shark on Monday, September 16, while sailing off Spain’s Canary Islands, the coastguard said. The 30-year-old woman lost a leg in the attack and died of a heart attack later while being transported in a Spanish rescue helicopter, a coastguard spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
She was sailing in a British catamaran in the Atlantic some 278 nautical miles southwest of the island of Gran Canaria when the shark struck. Emergency services received an alert at 12:55 GMT calling for a medical evacuation and sent a military plane and helicopter after also contacting the Moroccan coastguard.
The woman was taken on board the helicopter in the evening around 18:00 GMT and was bound for hospital in the Gran Canaria town of Las Palmas when she died, the spokesman said.