An 18-year-old tourist has died after being attacked by a shark while swimming off a popular beach in Brazil.(Video)

Video filmed from the beach shows a splash of water before the area she was swimming in turns red.

The footage then shows her being brought ashore with serious injuries to the lower part of her left leg. Much of her skin is missing, although her foot is still attached.

Ms Gobbi was taken to a local hospital, but died after surgery to amputate her leg around 15 inches above the knee.

The teenager, from Sao Paolo, is believed to have been visiting family in Recife, although it is not known whether any of her relatives were in the water with her when she was attacked.

“The rescuers came in a matter of five minutes but to us it felt like five years,” Ms Gobbi’s cousin, Daniele Gobbi, told Globo TV.

Signs warning swimmers of previous shark attacks are displayed along the length of the beach and Ms Gobbi had been warned about the dangers of swimming in the sea, the TV station reported.

It said local authorities have asked the Brazilian government to ban swimming in areas prone to shark attacks.

According to the government agency Comite Estadual de Monitoramento de Incidentes com Tubaroes, there have been 21 shark attacks -10 of them fatal – in Boa Viagem since 1992.

Ms Gobbi is thought to be the first woman killed by a shark since the records began.

Watch Brazil Shark Attack Video

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