Shark kills teenager in Australia

A 17-year-old boy was on Monday killed in a shark attack in Australia. Reports say the teenager was bitten on the upper thigh while swimming at Rudder Reef off Port Douglas, in Australia’s northeast coast.

A Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman told AFP:

 “We received a call about a 17-year-old with a serious upper thigh injury”

“A boat brought him in but he didn’t survive”.

Queensland Ambulance Service executive manager of operations Greg Thiedecke however said the boy went into cardiac arrest immediately after being bitten on his right upper leg, groin and upper arm.

Cairns Post quotes Thiedecke as saying:

“It would be speculating but (there are) a lot of large blood vessels in the groin area, so for him to go into cardiac arrest that quickly would be probably blood loss”.

According to experts, shark attacks are now common in Australian waters due to increasing number of water sports.

This attack is the fourth in the year in Australia. In September, a man was killed in front of his wife while swimming at Byron Bay.

In October, a young surfer lost parts of both arms in an attack by two great white sharks off the south coast of Western Australia.