A woman in her 30s was left in critical condition on Saturday after being attacked by a shark while swimming near the coogee beachone of the busiest in Sydney. The attack occurred at 11:15 in the morning and became the latest episode in a series of fatal incidents that have accumulated four fatalities in Australia so far this year.
According to the police in a statement, the victim suffered serious injuries in one leg and one arm. Other people at the scene pulled her out of the water and provided first aid on the shore before paramedics arrived. She was then taken to a nearby rugby field, from where a helicopter took her to a hospital.
According to a statement from Randwick City Council, in whose jurisdiction Coogee is located, the animal involved would be a shark between three and four meters in length.
As a precautionary measure, the council closed the beaches under his administration, including Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra, while neighboring Waverley Council adopted the same decision for Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama, he reported EFE.
Since May 16, three spearfishing divers have died in shark attacks off the Australian coast. Together with the case of a child that occurred in January, the total amounts to four deaths in the country during the year.
Shark attacks increase in Australia: a tragic year for bathers
On the Saturday before the attack in Coogee, a 4.5 meter great white shark killed Daniel Turpin35, while diving with his family off Michaelmas Island, near Albany Harbour, Western Australia.
Days before, on May 24, Michael Jensz39, died from head injuries suffered during an attack on the Great Barrier Reef, off the country’s northeast coast. Bull sharks, a species known for their aggressiveness in shallow, warm waters, had been sighted in the area.
The first link in this series was recorded on May 16, when a four-meter great white shark fatally attacked Steve Mattabonni38, in Perth. And in January, a 12-year-old boy died in hospital days after being attacked by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor itself.
Last year, Australia recorded five deadly attacks of shark in total. According to the Australian Shark Incident Database – a collaboration between Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales government – the average since 2000 is between two and three shark deaths per year.
That same source documents that incidents became more frequent over the decades, in parallel with population growth and the greater practice of aquatic activities such as swimming. surf and the tank diving.
Saturday’s attack in Coogee occurred just meters from a beach that receives thousands of visitors every weekend during the southern summer. The area is part of Sydney’s eastern coastal corridor, one of the busiest stretches of urban coastline in the southern hemisphere.
The incident investigation It was left to the local police, who did not provide additional information about the type of shark involved or the sea conditions at the time of the attack.
With information from EFE and Reuters
