An Italian tourist has died after being attacked by a shark in the Caribbean Sea.
The man, named in Italy as Antonio Straccialini, 56, died after he went swimming off La Piscinita, a popular snorkelling resort on the Colombian island of San Andres.
Images shared on social media and by the local press showed the victim lying injured before he was taken to hospital. He later died of his wounds.
It is the first reported shark attack off La Piscinita. San Andres is around 400 miles northwest of the Colombian coast and is closest to Nicaragua.
“There are diving programmes with professionals in which sharks pass near by, but nothing has ever happened,” a local government spokesman said on the day of the attack.
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Mirla Zambrano, a diving instructor based on the island, said: “We are all very surprised. It is the first time a shark has attacked a tourist in San Andres.”
Rodrigo Lopez, a marine biologist, 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, he began to shout out for help and was surrounded by blood.”
The attack has been blamed on a tiger shark. While the species accounts for the second highest number of fatal shark attacks on humans, incidents are rare.