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Loyola Marymount Student From Torrance Dies In Shark Attack In The Bahamas

TORRANCE (CBSLA) — An American tourist from Torrance has died in a shark attack in the Bahamas.

Bahamian officials say the woman was killed near Rose Island, an 11-mile stretch of uninhabited beach off the coast of Nassau.

According to the family's GoFundMe page, the victim was 21-year-old Jordan Lindsey, of Torrance.

Police say the victim was attacked by sharks while snorkeling with her family near the island. Family members apparently saw the sharks and yelled, trying to warn her, but she didn't hear them in time.

Police say there were three sharks involved; they bit her in the arms, legs and buttocks and severed her right arm. Lindsey was taken to hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. She is expected to undergo an autopsy in Nassau.

Lindsey was a communication studies major at Loyola Marymount University. Friends described her as an animal lover and a climate change advocate.

She was traveling with her family with a tour group named Sandy Toes.

Neighbors like Yvette Liao was shocked to hear about Lindsey's death.

"My heart is pounding, I cannot believe it," she said. "I don't know -- I don't know how they're gonna go through this."

According to a statement from the university, Lindsey transferred to LMU from Santa Monica College and participated in LMU's Entrepreneurship Society, the Tau Sigma National Honor Society and was a communications assistant for the LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering. She was also a student researcher with the university's Center for Urban Resilience.

The statement said the university was saddened by her death and will remember her with a plaque bearing her name at the on-campus student memorial, Ad Astra Per Aspera.

Lindsey's family described her as a "gentle soul" in a statement published on the GoFundMe page, which seeks to raise money to transport Lindsey home from The Bahamas.

"She will be missed deeply," it reads in part.

The Ministry of Tourism and Aviation of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas on Wednesday expressed its "deepest sympathies" in the wake of the tragedy.

Shark attacks remain rare around the world and says attacks while sharks are in a herd even less common.

"People aren't a normal food source for sharks," says Erin McCombs of the Aquarium of the Pacific, "sharks feed on things like fish and squid and small crustaceans."

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