A Scottish tourist reportedly attacked by a shark after his severed hand was found inside the creature’s stomach has been named.
Richard Martyn Turner vanished while snorkelling in a lagoon off the island of Réunion last weekend.
Authorities later discovered the 44-year-old’s hand with a wedding ring still attached inside the stomach of a tiger shark captured for research purposes.
READ MORE: Scots tourist ‘eaten by shark’ off holiday island of Reunion
It is understood Mr Turner, who works at the Registers of Scotland in the capital, was on a week-long holiday at the five star resort of Lux Réunion hotel in Saint-Gilles to celebrate wife Verity’s 40th birthday.
A police source on the Indian Ocean island told The Scottish Sun: “The hand and forearm of a man was found inside the stomach of one of the captured tiger sharks.
"All four were around three to four metres long. The woman identified the ring as belonging to her husband but the DNA tests will officially confirm if it is the missing man.
“Further investigations will be carried out on the sharks and their stomach contents examined.”
The shark was one of four caught on Monday and Tuesday in the Indian Ocean by the Centre de Securite Requin (CSR).
It was found just over four miles from the lagoon where Mr Turner was last seen.
READ MORE: Surfer saved from shark attack thanks to warning from drone
A spokesman for the Centre Regional Operationnel de Surveillance et de Sauvetage, the local search and rescue team, said: “The victim was certainly swimming but it is not clear whether he was attacked or he was already dead when he was eaten.
“One possibility is that he became unwell while in the lagoon and was taken by the currents into deeper water.”
Two fatal shark attacks have already taken place off the coast of the French overseas département this year.
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