A German tourist died after being bitten by a shark on Monday, September 16, while sailing off Spain's Canary Islands, the coastguard said.

The 30-year-old woman lost a leg in the attack and died of a heart attack later while being transported in a Spanish rescue helicopter, a coastguard spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP). She was sailing in a British catamaran in the Atlantic some 278 nautical miles (more than 500 kilometers) southwest of the island of Gran Canaria when the shark struck.

Emergency services received an alert at 12:55 GMT calling for a medical evacuation and sent a military plane and helicopter after also contacting the Moroccan coastguard.

The woman was taken on board the helicopter in the evening around 18:00 GMT and was bound for hospital in the Gran Canaria town of Las Palmas when she died, the spokesman said.

Boat-tracking website vesselfinder.comindicated that the boat, the Dalliance Chichester, had left the port of Las Palmas on September 14.