Woman, 30, is killed after shark bites off her leg while she was on a British pleasure boat in the Canary Islands
- The German died while on a British pleasure boat
- It is said that a shark bit off her leg
- She was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in Gran Canaria
A woman has died after being attacked by a shark on a British-flagged catamaran and was rushed to hospital in the Canary Islands.
The 30-year-old German lost her battle for her life in a Spanish Air Force helicopter while being evacuated to a hospital in Gran Canaria.
She was officially pronounced dead on arrival at the Doctor Negrin Hospital in the capital of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, on Monday evening.
Her leg is said to have been bitten off by the shark while she was on a catamaran in international waters, 447 kilometres (270 miles) southwest of Gran Canaria airport and about 177 kilometres (110 miles) east of the city of Dakhla in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco.
The catamaran she was a crew member of has been named the British ship Dalliance Chichester. The ship left the Spanish holiday island on 14 September.
The 30-year-old German lost her battle for her life in a Spanish Air Force helicopter while being evacuated to a hospital in Gran Canaria (File photo of a beach in Gran Canaria)
She was officially declared dead upon arrival at the Doctor Negrin Hospital in the capital of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas (File photo from Las Palmas)
The Spanish coast guard is said to have informed the Moroccan and British coast guards of the catamaran’s origin.
According to local reports, Moroccan authorities refused to transfer the injured woman to Rabat for emergency medical treatment.
The unnamed woman was pronounced dead yesterday at around 11pm after suffering a cardiac arrest in the Spanish military helicopter. The shark attack is believed to have occurred around 4pm the same day.
The catamaran is said to have sent out a Mayday at around 3:55 p.m. yesterday.
The Spanish Coast Guard responded by alerting nearby vessels to the emergency and one of them went to Dalliance Chichester to provide other crew members with medicine for the injured woman.
She boarded the Spanish Air Force helicopter just after 8 p.m.
It was not immediately clear tonight how the attack occurred. There have been no previous documented shark attacks in the area where yesterday’s incident occurred.
The Dalliance Chichester is a pleasure craft measuring 17 metres in length and 8 metres in width.