A 39-year-old French tourist was superficially bitten in the leg by a shark last week in Brazil in the state of Sao Paulo (southeast), an ocean research institute announced on Tuesday.
“The injuries are well compatible with a shark bite,”
the Argonauta Institute said in a statement.
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A spokesperson for this organization told AFP that the tourist, whose identity was not disclosed at the request of his family, was in good health and had returned to France.
Contacted, the French consulate in Sao Paulo did not immediately respond to AFP's requests.
The accident took place last Wednesday, when the tourist was swimming on Lamberto beach, in Ubatuba, a seaside resort about 200 km east of Sao Paulo.
Photos given by the family to the Argonauta Institute confirmed that they were indeed shark bites.
These images show two wounds about 5 and 10 cm above the ankle.
According to the institute, many species of sharks live off Ubatuba, but no such attack has been recorded in this region in the past thirty years.