A man has died after being attacked by a shark in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, Brazil.
Marcelo Rocha Santos, 51, was hanging out with friends off Piedade, Jaboatão dos Guararapes, near the “little church”.
Santos was playing soccer with several of his coworkers and around 1:50 p.m entered the water to wash off.
He began rinsing sand off in the roughly waist-deep water when a shark grabbed his right side and severed his right hand.
Lifeguards from post 10 heard Santos’s cries and pulled him from the water. They began administering first-aid using bandages to help stem the bleeding and alerted medical personal. The patient was taken to Hospital da Restauração, but later suffered a heart attack and died.
Little Church has been the site of several other shark attacks and is known as a dangerous location. Along with murky looking water, the area has deep drop-offs and several channels that are easily accessible to large sharks that would normally reside in deeper water.
In 2018, a bather died after being attacked by a tiger shark in the area.
Pablo Diego Inacio de Melo, 34, was swimming off Piedade Beach April 15, 2018. According to local reports Melo was warned by friends that the area was dangerous.
Around 2:30 p.m. a shark was spotted. Lifeguards warned water goers, but it was too late for Melo who was bitten on the leg and arms. With no thought of his own safety, a lifeguard entered the water and pulled the severely injured swimmer to shore.
Another shark attack occurred in the country in January 2021.
Sergio Noronha, 52, was surfing Jan 14 on the beach at Cacimba do Padre, in Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco. The former professional surfer from Rio de Janeiro was bitten on the right hand and was treated on-scene before being taken to a local clinic where he received 32 stitches.
A map of shark attack locations can be found on the 2021 Shark Attack Map.
