A teenager was killed in a shark
attack at a reef off Australia's northeast coast on Monday, with
ambulance officials saying he was dead by the time he reached shore.
The
17-year-old was bitten on the upper thigh at Rudder Reef off Port
Douglas, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Cairns, and likely died
of blood loss.
"We received a call about a 17-year-old with a
serious upper thigh injury," a Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman told
AFP, adding that attempts to resuscitate him were made at the scene.
"A boat brought him in but he didn't survive," she added.
Queensland
Ambulance Service executive manager of operations Greg Thiedecke said
the boy went into cardiac arrest immediately after being bitten on his
right upper leg, groin and upper arm."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," he told the Cairns Post.
Veteran
diver Col McKenzie, who heads the Association of Marine Park Tourism
Operators, told reporters Rudder Reef was not a common spot for dive
tourism operators.
But he
said it was popular with spear fishing enthusiasts, and there was a
fatal shark attack at nearby Opal Reef almost a decade ago to the day.
Thiedecke
said he grew up in nearby Cairns and he had not dealt with any shark
attacks in his 25 years of ambulance duty "so it's very rare".
Experts say attacks by sharks, which are common in Australian waters, are increasing as water sports become more popular.
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.
The
most recent fatality was in September when a man was killed in front of
his wife while swimming at Byron Bay on the east coast.
CREDIT}} yahoo
Post a Comment
Post a Comment