A woman has died after suffering serious injuries in a shark attack off the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, officials say.

The woman, aged around 20, sustained bite wounds to her leg during the incident which took place as she swam in the sea close to the beach in southwestern l’Etang-Sale on Saturday.

She received first aid at the scene before being taken to hospital but died later of a cardiac arrest, the local prefecture told AFP.

The attack comes after a 23-year-old man was attacked at almost the same spot last October. He survived but lost his right leg.

Several months earlier in July 2014, a 51-year-old surfer also suffered multiple bites in another attack at Saint-Leu in the southwest of the island, around 200km east of Madagascar.

Before that, 11 attacks were reported in the previous two years, of which five were fatal.