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A German tourist died from a rare shark attack near the Canary Islands while she was swimming alongside her catamaran off the northwest coast of the popular travel destination.
The unidentified 30-year-old woman was sailing on aBritish-flagged catamaran that had departed from theisland ofGran Canaria Saturday, Sept. 14, when the shark attacked.
One of her legs was bitten off during the attack, which happened shortly before 4 p.m. local time.
Authorities confirmed to Reuters that emergency personnel flew 320 miles to the spot of the attack to evacuate her, but she died from the wound in the helicopter.
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A woman died after being attacked by a shark while swimming near the Canary Islands. (Reinhard Dirscherl/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)
After the incident, Spain’s rescue service, the Salvamento Marítimo, investigated the attack.
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According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF), the organization has only recorded six confirmed shark-related incidents in Spain’s history.
Shark attacks are rare with a total of 69 confirmed unprovoked attacks happening worldwide in 2023, the ISAF said. Of those 69 attacks, 14 were fatal.
Spain has had six confirmed shark-related incidents in its history, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. (Ximena Borrazas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The report noted that shark attacks disproportionally occur in Australia, with 22% of attacks happening in the land down under.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Salvamento Marítimo for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.
