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April 8 (Bloomberg) — A 16-year-old surfer was killed by a shark today off Australia’s east coast, police said.
The teenager, who was on a bodyboard, was attacked at about 8:15 a.m. local time at Lighthouse Beach near Ballina, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) north of Sydney, New South Wales state police said. He was pulled from the surf suffering severe lacerations to his upper and lower leg and heavy blood loss.
“His mate raised the alarm after finding him floating unconscious in the water,” police said in a statement. The boy died at the beach after rescuers were unable to revive him. Beaches at Ballina were closed after the attack, police said.
Shark attacks in Australia are rising, according to the University of Florida. There were 12 attacks last year, up from 7 a year earlier, and second only to the U.S. where there were 50 in 2007. Prior to today’s incident, there have been 11 fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in the past 60 years, according to the Shark Research Institute of Australia.
An Australian woman fought off a Great White Shark last October in Byron Bay, north of Ballina, after it knocked her into the water from her surf ski. The woman beat the 2.5-meter shark with her paddle until it left.
There were no indications of the type of shark that attacked today. The boy was bodyboarding about 50 meters from the shore when the shark bit him.
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