A severed hand complete with the wedding ring of a British swimmer who went missing on a remote island was found inside a killed shark today.
The gruesome discovery was made by forensic scientists off the coast of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and they say the shark was killed because he was considered a threat to holidaymakers.
The scientists also carried out autopsies on five fish caught around the waters of the French overseas territory today.
It's believed the hand belonged to a 44-year-old man from Scotland who had been holidaying on the island with his wife.
An investigating source said: "It is feared that the hand belonged to a tourist who was reported missing on Saturday afternoon by his wife.
"The tourist and his wife were spending a week on the island and he had gone out swimming in the Hermitage Lagoon, off Saint-Gilles, alone on Saturday.
"When he did not get back, his wife sounded the alarm, and a full search was launched, involving boats and a helicopter.
"Divers searched around a coral reef in the area, and there were also patrols on land involving sniffer dogs. Sadly, the man could not be found."
There are frequent shark attacks around Reunion, which is in the Indian Ocean, some 500 miles from Madagascar.
Tiger sharks have a record second only to Great White sharks for attacks on humans, but it may be that the man drowned and his corpse attracted the fish.
DNA tests are due to be carried out on the hand, but scientists from the CSR Shark Safety Centre on Reunion have been told that the wedding ring on the it ‘conformed to one identified by the man’s wife,’ said the source.
The dead Tiger Shark was more than 10ft long and was one of five considered a threat to those in the sea.
