BY A STAFF WRITER

MANHATTEN, NY -- Rohina Bhandari, 49, an Indian American private equity director from Manhattan, New York, was killed by a tiger shark on November 30 while diving off a Costa Rican island in the Pacific Ocean.

The attack also badly injured the 26-year-old male Costa Rican diving guide leading the group that included Bhandari.

The shark savaged the two as they were surfacing after a dive off Cocos Island, a pristine national park located 300 miles off the Costa Rican mainland.

The environment ministry said in a statement that Bhandari had sustained fatal bite marks on both of her legs, adding that the attack was ‘an isolated incident’ and the first one of such seriousness recorded for the island.

The guide noticed the shark approaching his group underwater and tried to scare it away.

 

But as they surfaced, the shark went for the Indian American woman, tearing at her legs.

The guide, too, suffered leg injuries.

Park rangers came to assist, as did doctors who happened to be diving in the area and who declared the woman dead.

The injured guide was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition and conscious.

Bhandari, a resident of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was a senior director at WL Ross & Co. LL, a firm founded by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
She was also frequently spotted at charity events throughout the city.

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Update: 09-December-2017