AFP/San Jose 
 
 A 49-year-old US female tourist was killed by a tiger shark this week while diving off a Costa Rican island in the Pacific Ocean, the government and local media reported. 
 
 
 
 The attack also badly injured the 26-year-old male Costa Rican diving guide leading the group that included the American woman.The shark savaged the two on Thursday as they were surfacing after a dive off Coco Island, a pristine national park located 500 kilometres off the Costa Rican mainland, the environment ministry said in a statement.It stressed the attack was "an isolated incident" and the first one of such seriousness recorded for the island.According to the Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion, the guide noticed the shark approaching his group underwater and tried to scare it away.But as they surfaced, the shark went for the 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. He told La Nacion he believed the shark was a female.Tiger sharks, which have dark stripes on their body when young, are predators often found around Pacific islands. Unlike many other species of shark, they can be aggressive and account for a large proportion of reported attacks on humans.Costa Rica, a small Central American nation that boasts both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, relies strongly on its tourism industry, especially visitors from the nearby United States. ||||| Rohina Bhandari (r.) was killed by a tiger shark off the remote Isla del Coco, near Costa Rica, on Thursday. She is seen with Kim Standish and Jeffrey Rosenthal in 2014. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images for The Duke of Edi)
– An American tourist who was mauled to death by a shark off the coast of Costa Rica on Thursday has been identified as a New York City private equity director. Authorities say Rohina Bhandari, a 49-year-old senior director at WL Ross & Col. LL, was with a group of 18 people diving off Cocos Island National Park when she was attacked by a tiger shark, the New York Daily News reports. A boater and other divers tried to drive the shark away, but by the time Bhandari was pulled from the water she had suffered severe bites to her legs. A dive master was also bitten but his wounds were not life-threatening. The Costa Rican Environment Ministry said Bhandari was surfacing at the tail end of a long dive when the shark attacked, Gulf Times reports. The ministry also called the attack an "isolated incident" and the worst ever recorded for the island. Bhandari had worked at WL Ross, which was founded by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, since 2013.