Shark Kills Drowning Teen

Lifeguards were en route to save Bruni Gobbi when it attacked
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 24, 2013 8:31 AM CDT
Updated Jul 28, 2013 9:26 AM CDT

It's hard to imagine a worse way to die: Bruni Gobbi was drowning, with lifeguards on their way to help the 18-year-old and her cousin on Monday, when a shark attacked. It bit Gobbi's left leg, and though rescuers were able to get her ashore, she died that night at a hospital, CNN reports. The Daily Mail adds that her leg was amputated before her death, but she had lost too much blood. Gobbi and her cousin were swimming at Boa Viagem beach in Recife, Brazil, at the time.

"The rescuers came in a matter of five minutes, but to us it felt like five years," the cousin tells a local CNN affiliate. "We knew there were risks of an attack, but I didn't think that it would happen in the shallow [water], but in the deep." Such attacks aren't entirely rare in the area: In the past two decades, about 23 people have been attacked off Boa Viagem beach. Gobbi is the first woman to die from an attack in the state of Pernambuco during that period. Officials believe she was attacked by a bull shark. (Gobbi was the second girl to die in a high-profile shark attack this month.)

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