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15th Apr 2023

Terrifying moment snorkeler bitten by 220lb shark off Maldives coast

Steve Hopkins

And she got back in the water and continued

A video has emerged showing the terrifying moment a 220-pound shark clamped its jaws around a swimmer in the Maldives.

Carmen Canovas Cervello was diving at Vaavu Atoll in the island paradise nation with a friend when the eight-foot-long nurse shark came up alongside her, then decided to take a bite.

In the video, the 30-year-old can be seen diving in her bikini, following one shark. A second shark was to her left, and a third behind her.

The second shark then turns and sinks its teeth into her torso, momentarily, before swimming off.

It left Carmen, who reportedly decided to jump back in for a second dip after cleaning her wound, with a six-inch bite mark.

According to MailOnline, Carmen had been swimming with Ibrahim Shafeeg, an underwater photographer, who captured the footage on his GoPro camera. And the pair had been swimming with a school of sharks for over 45 minutes before the incident near the Dhiggiri resort in Vaavu Atoll.

Carmen, the Mail reported, didn’t feel she needed any medical treatment, and the pair continued snorkelling and diving with the sharks for days afterwards.

Nurse sharks are common in the Vaavu Atoll region of the Maldives, and they often seek food from different tourist attractions surrounding the area. They are not, generally, aggressive, and swim away when approached.

According to reports before 2022, there were around 51 provoked and five unprovoked attacks from nurse sharks, the Mail reported.

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