A 26-year-old woman was killed after a shark bit off her leg as she went swimming with her 5-year-old daughter in Mexico.
Rafael Araiza, the head of the civil defence office, said the attack took place on Saturday at a short distance from the beach in Melaque.
The woman, Maria Fernandez Martinez Jimenez, was a resident of a nearby town. She was swimming with her five-year-old daughter on a floating play platform about 75 feet (25 metres) from the shore.
She was trying to place her daughter on the floating platform when the shark attacked her. However, her daughter was not injured.
People took the profusely bleeding woman to the beach.
Ariaza said that despite a quick response by rescuers, the woman died of blood loss from the massive bite wound near the hip.
Authorities closed the beaches in Melaque and nearby Barra de Navidad for swimming as a precautionary measure.
In a post on Facebook, Cihuatlán Municipality, under which the Melaque beach falls, said, “In light of the unfortunate incident that occurred today on one of our beaches, our priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of all citizens. Therefore, we have taken the decision to issue a precautionary measure to avoid entering South Coast beaches until further notice. We are working in collaboration with the competent authorities to assess the situation and taking necessary measures to ensure safety on our beaches.”
Shark attacks are relatively rare in Mexico. In 2019, a US diver survived a shark bite on the forearm in Magdalena Bay off the Baja California Sur coast.
(With inputs from AP)