A surfer is missing after being attacked by a shark in Australia. (Representative)
Sydney, Australia:
A surfer is missing after being attacked by a shark off the southwest coast of Australia on Friday, in an area known for its large encounters with whites.
The surfer, believed to be male, was attacked Friday morning off the beach at Kelp Beds near Esperance – about a seven-hour drive from Perth, local police said.
A nearby surfer tried to help the man after the attack but was unable to pull him out of the water, Western Australian Prime Minister Mark McGowan told media.
“It looks like it’s a very, very difficult and very serious situation going on over there right now,” McGowan said.
The man’s surfboard washed up on the shore showing “obvious signs of a shark attack” but rescuers were still searching the waters for the surfer, said Chief Police Sgt. Western Australia’s Justin Tarasinski on ABC National Television.
“Unfortunately, at this point, no, we have not recovered the surfer involved in the attack and the search operations are ongoing,” Tarasinski said.
The beach had been busy at the time with around eight surfers in the waves and several other people ashore, he said.
In January, a man was killed by a tall white man at a nearby dive site and three years earlier a 17-year-old girl was mutilated to death on the same beach.
While in 2014, a young surfer lost parts of both his arms after being attacked by two great whites, also off Esperance.
There have been six fatal shark attacks in Australian waters so far this year, according to Australian Shark Attack File maintained by Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
