Australia shark attack kills woman, seriously wounds man

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A woman in her 20s was killed and a man was critically injured in a shark attack at a beach on Australia’s east coast.

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The attack took place at a remote beach in Crowdy Bay National Park in New South Wales, about 360 kilometres north of Sydney.

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Emergency services responded to reports that two people in their mid-20s were in the waters of Kylies Beach when they were both bitten by a shark at 6:30 a.m. local time on Thursday.

“At this stage, all I’m prepared to say is they were known to each other and they were going for a swim and the shark attacked,” Police Chief Insp. Timothy Bayly told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

He did note that a bystander helped the pair on the beach before paramedics arrived, but the woman died at the scene.

The man was rushed to hospital by helicopter, and was in serious but stable condition.

Double fatality may have been prevented

Paramedic Josh Smyth said the quick actions of the bystander may have saved the man’s life.

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“I just really need to have a shoutout to the bystander on the beach who put a makeshift tourniquet on the male’s leg which obviously potentially saved his life and allowed New South Wales Ambulance paramedics to get to him and render first aid,” Smyth told reporters.

Officials have not released the identities of the man and woman, but the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the couple was from Switzerland and on a morning swim when the attack took place.

Who are the victims?

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed the man and woman were Swiss nationals.

“The Swiss Consulate General in Sydney is in contact with the local authorities and is supporting the relatives within the framework of consular protection,” it said in a statement.

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Beaches in the area and to the north of the attack were closed to swimmers indefinitely, Bayly said, as authorities work to catch the animal “to determine the species of shark involved.”

Scientists believe the beast responsible is a 10-foot-long bull shark, a state government statement said, per the Herald.

Drumlines — baited hooks suspended from floats — were deployed off Kylies Beach in an attempt to capture the shark, the government detailed.

Double attacks are rare

Gavin Naylor, director of the University of Florida’s shark research program and manager of the International Shark Attack File database, told the AP that one shark attacking more than one person was extremely uncommon.

“It is very unusual,” he said.

“Individual shark attacks are rare. And shark attacks on two people by the same individual is not unheard of, but it’s very rare.”

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