A German tourist has died after a shark bit off her leg in the Atlantic south of the Canary Islands. Spanish authorities dispatched an air force helicopter to rescue the woman but she died while on board the aircraft as it headed northward towards one of the archipelago’s hospitals.

A German woman died after she was attacked by a shark while swimming beside her catamaran in high seas between Spain's Canary Islands and West Africa, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. The woman,

A 30-year-old German tourist has died in hospital in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, after a shark attack while swimming. Despite the arrival of a rescue helicopter, doctors were unable to do anything.

The woman, a 30-year-old German national, is said to have had her leg bitten off by the shark as she was on a catamaran south-west of Gran Canaria's airport