German tourist dies after shark attack off Canary Islands

A tragedy in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A German tourist died on Monday, September 17, after being attacked by a shark about 500 km from the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, sea rescue services announced to AFP. The young woman, aged 30, was bitten on the leg while she was sailing a catamaran on Monday afternoon. She died of cardiac arrest while she was being airlifted to the hospital in Las Palmas. This type of accident remains very rare in this area.

According to a study published in February by the International Shark Attack File, a database at the University of Florida, shark attacks increased worldwide in 2023, with 69 bites “unprovoked” (when a human has not intentionally approached this fish), compared to 63 in 2022. They caused a total of 10 deaths: four in Australia, two in the United States and one in the Bahamas, Egypt, Mexico and France (in New Caledonia).