A swimmer died after being bitten by a shark on a Sydney beach on Wednesday, in the first fatal attack in the Australian city since 1963. The victim suffered “catastrophic injuries”, according to police and emergency services.
Witnesses told local TV that they saw the attack on a bather wearing a wetsuit. “A man was swimming and a shark came and attacked him vertically,” Kris Linto told Channel Nove. “We heard a loud scream and turned around. It sounded like a car had gone into the water, so the shark was chewing on the body and there was blood everywhere.”
Another person, who was fishing on the rocks nearby, told ABC he estimated the animal was 4.5 meters long.
According to police, emergency services were called at around 4:35 pm local time (2:35 am GMT) to Buchan Point in eastern Sydney. The agents, with assistance from the Marine Area Command and Surfer Life Rescue, responded to the call and located the human remains in the water.
A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said the “patient suffered catastrophic injuries and there was nothing the paramedics could do.” Authorities have not released the victim’s identity.
Amid public fears, the government of the state of New South Wales, where Sydney is located, has invested millions of dollars in technology in an attempt to reduce attacks on its coast, installing networks on 51 beaches, as well as drones and white shark satellite tracking to send alerts when an animal is located.
Shark attacks seem to have become more frequent in Brazil this summer. In November 2021, Ubatuba recorded two in less than 15 days — on day 3 at Praia do Lamberto and 11 days later at Praia Grande.
Piedade beach, in Jaboatão dos Guararapes (PE), was also the scene of two incidents in 2021 — one of them with death.
The most recent attack that drew attention in Brazil took place on January 28, on Sueste beach, in Fernando de Noronha (PE). An eight-year-old girl had her leg amputated. The site was closed indefinitely.
Experts, however, do not attribute this to an increase in animals in the waters of the Brazilian coast – but to the greater number of bathers on the beaches after the relaxation of restrictions imposed in the pandemic.
