Shark attacks off the Canary Islands kill a German woman

A German woman died after being attacked by a shark while swimming next to her catamaran in the open ocean between West Africa and Spain’s Canary Islands, according to a police spokesman on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old woman was on a sailboat that had left Gran Canaria island on September 14 and was heading south. She was struck by a shark, and one of her legs was damaged.

The coastguard flew from Gran Canaria to the area, which is 514 kilometers (320 miles) south of the island, and took her to safety, but she died in the chopper from the wound she got.

Some shark species are big and mean enough to hunt animals the size of people, but shark attacks and deaths are very rare in the world. According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) at the Florida Museum of Natural History, 14 people died in shark attacks around the world in 2023.

Spain has had only six proven shark-related incidents in its history, according to ISAF.