Officials report that an American teen on vacation in Central America was attacked by a shark and lost his limb.
The attack happened while 15-year-old Annabelle Carlson was participating in a diving trip in the Gulf of Honduras with the Belize Dive Pro company, close to Halfmoon Caye.
About 50 miles southeast of Belize City, on Tuesday morning, during an expedition to the Lighthouse Reef, the incident occurred, according to the Belize Coast Guard.
“It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark,” Adm. Elton Bennett of the Belize Coast Guard stated. “So, she lost her right leg.”
The younger sister of Annabelle, Sofia Carlson, was named as the victim by Belizean officials, while Kellie, the mother of the teenagers, said that her elder daughter was hurt in the attack by the roughly six-foot-long reef shark.
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According to Bennett, tour guides retrieved Carlson from the sea and transported her to a Coast Guard station, where personnel assisted in her stabilization. Carlson was subsequently airlifted to a nearby hospital, he said.
“She’s stable and she’s recovering at this time,” Bennett stated on Thursday.
Shark attacks in Belize’s seas are infrequent, according to local officials.
“I want to highlight that this is something that is very rare,” Andre Perez, Belize’s Minister of the Blue Economy, stated to reporters on Wednesday.
