Advertisement

Tourist bitten by shark during Christmas swim off Gran Canaria

Fiona Govan
Fiona Govan - [email protected]
Tourist bitten by shark during Christmas swim off Gran Canaria
Photo: Cris Ojeda-Thies / Twitter

Roast turkey is the traditional fare for many at Christmas but one unsuspecting tourist discovered that she was on the menu when she went for a dip off a beach in Gran Canaria.

Advertisement

Cristina Ojeda, a 38-year-old doctor from Madrid decided to go for a Christmas Day swim off the Arinaga beach while on holiday with her family.

About 20 meters from the shore, she felt a pain in her arm and saw that a shark measuring about 1.7 meters in length had grabbed hold of it.

"I pulled my arm and it let go," she told Antena 3. "My arm felt like it had been dragged through thorns"

She was left with rows of bite marks across her upper arm, some of which needed stitches.

She posted a photograph of her wounds on twitter but sought to play down the attack insisting that she wasn’t afraid of going back in the water.

"No alarmism please," she said. "I would go for another swim tomorrow if it wasn’t for the bandage."

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also