An Italian tourist has been killed in a shark attack on a Caribbean island.
Antonio Roseto Degli Abruzzi, 56, lost a large chunk of his right thigh after being bitten by the eight-foot fish as he swam in a popular-snorkelling area called La Piscinita on the Colombian island of San Andres.
Graphic images published by local press and on social media showed him lying on his back after the attack with blood dripping from his wound before he was taken to hospital.
He went into hypovolemic shock because of the severe blood loss he suffered before dying.
The shark attack, which happened on Friday, has been described as a first in the area which is packed with hotels and diving centres and is regarded as one of the best places to snorkel on the island.
An island government spokesman said: “There are diving programmes with professionals in which sharks pass nearby, but nothing has ever happened.”
Diving instructor Mirla Zambrano, 50, added: “We are all very surprised. It’s the fist time a shark has attacked a tourist in San Andres.”
The attack has been blamed on a tiger shark, second only to the great white in recorded fatal incidents involving humans, although they are still exceedingly rare.
Videos circulating on social media show the two mostly nocturnal hunters thought to have been involved in Friday’s incident swimming in the transparent water where the Italian holidaymaker lost his life.
Marine biologist Rodrigo Lopez said: “People are very worried about what’s happened and they’re not letting people go into the water.
“A witness said the man who was attacked was a good swimmer and had been in the sea for quite a while and when he went further out a second time after coming back towards the shore, began to shout out for help and was surrounded by blood.”
Mauricio Valdonado, who risked his own life swimming out to bring the tourist back to shore, added: “He was on his own.”
La Piscinita, which in English is Little Swimming Pool, gets its name from the calm water and the rock formation which makes it look like a natural pool locked in cliffs.
Visitors describe it on Tripadvisor as a “great place to swim with the fish.”
One said after a recent trip: “A wonderful place. Very crystal-clear and warm water, a good spot to jump in and enjoy a moment in the water.”
San Andres, around 470 miles north of the Colombian mainland, is part of Colombia but has been historically tied to the UK.
English settlers coming from Barbados and England settled in San Andres and the neighbouring island of Providence in the 17th century.
Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan used it in 1670 as one of the centres of his operations.
After a failed Spanish invasion of the islands in 1635, they were controlled by England until 1787.
