A Canadian tourist has lost both of her hands in a bull shark attack while on holiday with the family in the Caribbean.
According to Sky News, a 55-year-old Canadian woman encountered the shark attack while swimming in Providenciales, one of the Turks and Caicos Islands, early in February 2025.
The brother-in-law of the victim who set up a GoFundMe page for the couple revealed the details of the encounter.
He wrote, “After leaving the beach to join her husband, in only hip-deep clear water, a seven-foot bull shark came at my sister-in-law and bumped into her legs (and) then circled around and bit her thigh. Not satisfied, the shark came back again, and when she put both hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark cut off both of her hands, one at mid-forearm and the other at the wrist.”
“Her husband, having rushed back to help, then managed to wrestle away the shark and stayed between her and the shark until she walked out of the water and collapsed on the beach,” he continued.
He further added that the couple lived “what can only be described as a nightmare" that has "completely altered their life in the blink of an eye."
Moreover, after investigating the incident, the Turks and Caicos Islands Environment Department stated that the incident took place after the tourist attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs.
Notably, shark attacks are very rare in the Turks and Caicos; from 2021 to 2025, only four shark attack incidents were reported, and all four people survived the attack.
