“It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark,” Adm. Elton Bennett of the Belize Coast Guard said. “So, she lost her right leg.”

Tour operators pulled Carlson from the water and took her to a Coast Guard base, where officers helped stabilize her, according to Bennett. He said Carlson was then airlifted to a local hospital.

“She’s stable and she’s recovering at this time,” Bennett told ABC News on Thursday.

Local officials said shark attacks in Belize’s waters are unusual.

“I want to highlight that this is something that is very rare,” Belize’s Minister of the Blue Economy Andre Perez told reporters on Wednesday.