A British holidaymaker is in hospital after a shark attack off the coast of Tobago in the Caribbean.
Peter Smith, 64, from Berkhamsted, Herts is in hospital with hand, leg and stomach injuries.
It involved a bull shark thought to be up to 10 feet long.
Tobago’s chief secretary Farley Augustine said the retired IT worker is now in a ‘critical, but stable’ condition.
Smith, his wife and friends were due to fly home later the same day of the shark attack.
The British High Commission has been in touch and the Foreign Office is supporting the family.
According to Orion Jakerov, a water sports manager at the nearby Starfish Hotel, the shark attacked close to the shore in waist deep water.
“I think their backs were turned and they were just lounging around and nobody saw the shark coming,” he said.
“The other people in the water were physically trying to fight off the shark.”
Several nearby beaches were closed as a precaution.
There were 69 unprovoked attacks worldwide last year and 22 provoked attacks.
The Florida-based International Shark Attack File recorded 14 shark attack fatalities in 2023.
