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Indian-American woman killed by shark while snorkelling in Costa Rica

The 49-year-old was bitten on both legs by the deadly tiger shark.

In a tragic incident, an escape from everyday life hassles resulted in death for an Indian-American living in New York city.

49-year-old Rohina Bhandary, identified as a US citizen, was killed by a tiger shark when she went snorkelling off an emote island in Costa Rica, a Central American island nation, on November 30.

Costa Rica’s Environment Ministry said that Rohina was taken out of the water after she had sustained damaging bites on both legs but could not be saved.

“Upon reaching the surface, the attack on the tourist was already serious,” the ministry said.

Doctors who were holidaying at the remote island declared her dead.

Rohina was part of an 18-member group, members of which were diving off Cocos Island National Park— a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its abundant species of sharks.

Even their 26-year-old instructor was bitten but he was rescued. He was reported to be in a stable condition after he was hospitalised.

The country’s environment ministry, however, stressed that such an incident was “isolated” and that this was the first such fatal accident recorded in the island.

Rohina, who was working as a private equity director at WL Ross & Co was also the granddaughter of IG Balakrishna Shetty and sister of Dr Nitin Bhandary from Mangaluru. She was seen at many charity events in New York city, Daily Mail said.

According to the diving instructor, the predator was a female shark. Tiger sharks can be as large as 15 feet in length and can weigh more than 850 kilograms.

Unlike other breeds of sharks, tiger sharks are known to attack humans and come only second to the great white shark when it comes to reported shark attacks on humans.They have dark stripes on their bluish green skin resembling tigers. But with age, the stripes disappear or fade. They are found in the  east coast of North America to the east coast of Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and in the Indian Ocean.