Teenager Going For A Quick Swim Severely Injured In Shark Attack

Florida man recounts Bahamas shark attack

Marlin Wakeman, 24, fell into a ‘shark den’ after a misstep at the Bahamas dock where he was working April 26. He was swarmed by 20 sharks when he hit the water, he said, but he managed to wrest himself away. (Credit: WSVN)

A 15-year-old girl from Aspen, Colorado, was severely injured in a shark attack while scuba diving in Belize this week, according to reports and a fundraising page set up for the teen.

Annabelle Carlson had just finished scuba diving with her family and a tour group and had gotten back onto the tour boat on Tuesday, when she decided to jump back in the water for a quick swim, the fundraising page set up by a friend of the family explained.

The teen lost her leg in the attack, the Belize Coast Guard told ABC News.

“That’s when the unimaginable encounter happened. The odds are 1 in 11.5 million that this could happen. That unimaginable encounter was a shark attack. It was a very aggressive, very traumatic, terror-filled fight for her life,” the fundraising page said.

US LEADS THE WORLD IN UNPROVOKED SHARK BITES

A 15-year-old from Colorado was severely injured in a shark attack while scuba diving in Belize this week, according to reports and a fundraising page set up for the teen. (Getty)

“Annabelle was able to fight off the attack as best as she could but was critically injured in the fight.”

Carlson was airlifted to a hospital in Belize City, it said, adding, “The quick action from the emergency response team in Belize saved her life.”

Carlson has since been flown back to the U.S., where she remains in a hospital receiving care, the fundraising page said.

US LEADS THE WORLD IN UNPROVOKED SHARK BITES

Scuba divers explore the stalactites inside the Great Blue Hole, a giant marine sinkhole, Lighthouse Reef Atoll, Belize. (Andre Seale/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Carlson’s tour group was in Half Moon Caye in the Gulf of Honduras around 50 miles south of Belize City when she was attacked, ABC reported.

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Andre Perez, minister of Belize’s Blue Economy, told a local TV station, “We’re being informed that the victim is OK, is alive, made it. What is the magnitude of the damage? We don’t know as yet.”