American Teen Suffers Horrific Injuries in Vacation Shark Attack

A 15-year-old American tourist lost her leg in a shark attack while vacationing in Belize, ABC News reported.

Annabelle Carlson was with her family on an expedition to Lighthouse Reef, near Halfmoon Caye in the Gulf of Honduras with the Belize Dive Pro company when tragedy struck. Carlson had just completed a dive when a shark bit one of her legs.

"It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark," Admiral Elton Bennett, of the Belize Coast Guard, told ABC News. "So, she lost her right leg."

While People and local outlets Channel 5 and 7NewsBelize reported the victim’s identity as Sofia Carlson, Carlson’s mother confirmed to ABC that it was her eldest daughter, Annabelle, who was injured in the attack. Carlson’s mother reported that Annabelle was attacked by a reef shark which appeared to be about six feet long.

Carlson was pulled from the water by Dive Pro employees and taken to a Coast Guard base, where she was stabilized and later transported by helicopter to a local hospital. "She's stable and she's recovering at this time," Bennett told the outlet on Thursday.

Authorities in Belize reiterated that while this is an “unfortunate situation,” shark attacks are not particularly common in their locale. “We’re very saddened about it, but I want to highlight that this is very rare,” Andre Perez, Belize's Minister of the Blue Economy, told Channel 5.

Perez went on to assert that “there must be some other reason why [the attack] happened, but it’s too early to say right now.” Much like the mayor in Jaws, he argued that tourists shouldn’t be dissuaded from going to the beach. “I don’t think this is a time to say, well, you know, we don’t want to go swimming again or something,” Perez argued.