NORSUP, Vanuatu, June 23 (UPI) -- A New Zealand family's winter holiday came to a tragic end when their 7-year-old New Zealand girl died from a shark attack at a beach in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu is a group of islands in the South Pacific.
TV New Zealand reports that Alysha Webster and her family traveled to Vanuatu in their yacht for a vacation. The Websters were swimming in a bay on the island of Malekula when a shark bit Alysha.
Paul Willis, New Zealand High Commissioner to Vanuatu, said that the waters around the islands are home to many large sharks, including hammerheads and reef sharks. But he said that local people generally have a good sense of where swimming is safe, and locals were also in the water at the time of the attack.
Willis said that the Websters were close by when their daughter was attacked.
