A shark caused the death of one person and seriously injured another, Thursday (local date 27), on a beach in the state of New South Wales, eastern Australia, according to information from rescuers and police.
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The attack occurred early in the morning, and one of the victims, a woman, died at the scene. The other victim, a man, suffered serious leg injuries and was airlifted to hospital. His condition is considered stable.
“They (the victims) knew each other, they were swimming and the shark attacked,” New South Wales Police Inspector Timothy Bailey told reporters.
State Ambulance Service Inspector Joshua Smith attributed the success of the operation to an unidentified person who passed by, who may have saved the man’s life by applying a tourniquet to his leg.
Smith added: “The courage of some people is admirable in this situation. To expose themselves in this way is an act of heroism.”
Stephen Pearce, executive director of Surf Life Saving NSW, described the incident as “truly terrible”. “This area is very remote, and there is no rescue service,” he told local radio 2G.
The beach and the surrounding area were closed, and authorities are working to determine the type of shark that attacked the swimmers.
Emergency services were called at around 6:30am local time (4:30pm on Wednesday in Brasilia) due to the attack which occurred near a beach in Crowdy Bay, about 250km north of Sydney.
Since 1791, more than 1,280 incidents involving sharks have been recorded in Australia, more than 250 of which resulted in death, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database (ASID), which records the interactions of these predators with humans in the Oceanian country.
In September, a surfer died after being attacked by a great white shark on a popular Sydney beach. The man, who left behind a wife and young daughter, lost “several limbs” and his surfboard was broken in two, police said.
Australia’s seas are full of sharks, and the great white shark tops the list of species capable of fatally attacking humans.
Undeterred, Australians frequent the country’s coast in large numbers. A 2024 survey shows that nearly two-thirds of the population made a total of 650 million visits to the coast in one year.
How best to protect people from shark attacks is a sensitive topic in the ocean state.
Over the years, authorities have adopted different types of methods, such as using drones, placing audio trackers on animals so they can be detected near popular beaches, real-time alerts using a cell phone app, and the traditional method of installing networks.
However, experts say that shark lives also need to be protected. Globally, about 37% of oceanic shark and ray species are listed as endangered or critically vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).