September 18, 2024, 06:10 | Updated: September 18, 2024, 10:48
Playa de Papagayo near Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.
Picture: Alamy
A woman has died after a shark severed her leg while she was taking a cruise off the Canary Islands.
The 30-year-old woman, reported to be a crew member on a British-flagged catamaran, suffered a fatal injury during a swim on Monday evening.
Identified as a German national, she was airlifted to a hospital by a Spanish Air Force helicopter after the incident, which took place 278 miles southwest of Gran Canaria’s airport.
Tragically, she was pronounced dead after being transferred to Doctor Negrin Hospital in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria.
Spanish authorities anticipate interviewing the crew of the pleasure boat in response to this unfortunate incident.
Aerial view of a catamaran with people on board and in the water, swimming near the coasts of Lanzarote, Canary, Spain. Jet ski.
Picture: Alamy
A distress call from the catamaran was received around 3:55 PM on Monday.
The vessel the victim was on is believed to be the Dalliance Chichester, a 17-meter-long catamaran.
Spanish Coastguards are reported to have contacted their Moroccan counterparts, as the boat was situated in disputed international waters.
UK coastguards were also notified since the catamaran has a British flag.
However, according to the Mail Online, Moroccan authorities denied emergency medical transfer of the gravely injured woman to Rabat.
LBC has reached out to Moroccan authorities for a statement.
The boat set sail from the popular Spanish tourist destination on September 14, heading south towards Morocco’s coastline.
The Spanish coastguard also alerted all vessels in the vicinity of the catamaran, with one responding by providing medical supplies for the woman on the Dalliance Chichester.
Catamaran anchored in the bay of Palma, Palma, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Picture: Alamy
Unfortunately, the woman was declared dead shortly after 11 PM local time after suffering a cardiac arrest while on the Spanish helicopter transporting her.
Historically, there have been only seven recorded shark attacks on humans in the Canary Islands since records began.
None of those incidents resulted in fatalities.