A 64-year-old British tourist has lost his arm and leg after being mauled by a bull shark on the southeastern Caribbean island of Tobago.

According to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Peter Smith was in waist-deep water when the attack happened near the Starfish Resort in Courland Bay, a popular tourist destination in Tobago.

Augustine said the bull shark was approximately 8 to 10 feet long, and 2 feet wide.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” fellow tourist Stephanie Wright told The Mirror. “I saw a dorsal fin come out of the water and thought, ‘’Oh my God, it’s a shark.’’

A BRITISH TOURIST IS IN A HOSPITAL AFTER A SHARK ATTACK; TOBAGO CLOSES SEVERAL BEACHES

A shark attack on a British tourist in the southeastern Caribbean prompted the government of Trinidad and Tobago to close seven beaches and a marine park. (Encyclopaedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Augustine said that the attack happened just 30 feet from the shore on Friday, April 26, at 9:15 a.m. 

Officials said that the tourist was hospitalized in an intensive care unit following the attack.

Peter Smith was hospitalized in an intensive care unit following the attack, officials said. (Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine)

He said the victim’s left hand had been severed from the elbow down, his left thigh was also severed, and he also received lacerations to his stomach.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO FACING ‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’ AFTER MAJOR COASTAL OIL SPILL

Photos from the Chief Secretary’s office showed graphic images of Smith’s severe shark bites along his body.

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said that an 8- to 10-foot bull shark attacked Peter Smith. (Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine)

The Chief Secretary said that he had spoken to the British High Commissioner and the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard and the agencies were closely monitoring the area.

“Currently, we are doing drone reconnaissance/surveillance, Coast Guard surveillance, and the Department of Fisheries is combing the area to ensure safety,” Augustine said. 

Shark attacks are rare. Last year, there were 69 unprovoked attacks and 22 provoked bites worldwide, along with 14 fatalities, according to the Florida-based International Shark Attack File.

The law is backed mainly by Shia Muslim parties who form the largest coalition in Iraq’s parliament.

Iraq’s parliament has passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values, but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBTQ community in Iraq.

The law adopted on Saturday aims to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world,” according to a copy of the law seen by the Reuters news agency.

It was backed mainly by conservative Shia Muslim parties who form the largest coalition in Iraq’s parliament.

The Law on Combating Prostitution and Homosexuality bans same-sex relations with at least 10 years and a maximum of 15 years in prison, and mandates at least seven years in prison for anybody who promotes homosexuality or prostitution.

The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes transgender people and doctors who perform gender-affirming surgery with up to three years in prison.

The bill had initially included the death penalty for same-sex acts but was amended before being passed after strong opposition from the United States and European nations.

‘A serious blow to human rights’

Until Saturday, Iraq did not explicitly criminalise gay sex, though loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code had been used to target LGBTQ people, and members of the community have also been killed by armed groups and individuals.

“The Iraqi parliament’s passage of the anti-LGBT law rubber-stamps Iraq’s appalling record of rights violations against LGBTQ people and is a serious blow to fundamental human rights,” Rasha Younes, deputy director of the LGBTQ rights programme at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

“Iraq has effectively codified in law the discrimination and violence members of the LGBTI community have been subjected to with absolute impunity for years,” the AFP news agency quoted Amnesty International’s Iraq Researcher Razaw Salihy as saying.

“The amendments concerning LGBTI rights are a violation of fundamental human rights and put at risk Iraqis whose lives are already hounded daily,” Salihy added.

Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP that the law “serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts”.

Major Iraqi parties have in the past year stepped up criticism of LGBTQ rights, with rainbow flags frequently being burned in protests by both governing and opposition conservative Shia Muslim factions last year.

More than 60 countries criminalise gay sex, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data.