Shark attacks American tourist in Turks and Caicos, police say

A shark attacked a 22-year-old woman from Connecticut while she was snorkeling at a resort in Turks and Caicos Wednesday, according to a release from the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

The woman was snorkeling with a friend around 3 p.m. local time when a shark attacked them, police said. A resort employee then called police for an ambulance, according to the release.

The employee told police that the victim "had her leg bitten off by a shark," the release said.

Officers of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force, along with an ambulance, arrived on the scene and took the woman to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre, where she remains in serious condition, police said.

Big Blue Collective, an eco-adventures and water sports company in the Turks and Caicos Islands, said in a statement on Thursday, "The calm, quick and measured response from one of our captains and office team meant that the victim was extracted from the ocean and dispatched in the ambulance in 15 minutes, saving them from a potentially life-threatening situation."

The company called the attack, which it said happened in clear, calm waters, "unfortunate" and "what is known in diving circles as a case of mistaken identity," according to the statement.

The victim and her friend were on a private trip aboard a private vessel unrelated to one of Big Blue Collective's excursions at the time of the attack by a presumed Caribbean reef shark, the company's statement said.