A teenage girl has tragically lost her leg after being bitten by a shark while scuba-diving with her family on holiday.
Annabelle Carlson from Aspen, US, was on an organised dive with her family and other tourists.
Afterwards, the 15-year-old jumped off the boat and back into the water for a swim.
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It was then, on Tuesday morning (6 August), that she was attacked by a shark.
She bravely fought the predator off in the sea near the Lighthouse Reef atoll in Belize.
But the teen took a nasty bite to the leg in the process.
Rescuers took Carlson to a Belize Coast Guard base on Calabash Caye.
From there, she was airlifted to a hospital in Belize City.
She was stabilised before being flown to a trauma centre in her home country.
At the time of writing, the teen is still hospitalised and receiving care.
Carlson is a pupil at Aspen High School, as reported by Need To Know.
A GoFundMe has been started to support her recovery journey.
Organiser Aja Jewell wrote: “The quick action from the emergency response team in Belize saved her life.”
She added: “Annabelle will have a very long road of recovery ahead of her.”
Belize’s Minister of Blue Economy, Andre Perez, told local media: “We’re very saddened about it, but I want to highlight that this is something very rare.
“I don’t think this is the time for us to say we’re not going to go swimming again.
“There must be some other reason why that happened.
“But it’s too early to say right now.”
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