Girl killed in shark attack off Australia’s west coast

A 16-year-old girl died on Saturday after being mauled by a shark in a river in Western Australia’s state capital Perth, after jumping into the water to swim with a pod of dolphins.

Police said they were called to the scene of the attack on Saturday afternoon local time near a road bridge over the Swan River in the Fremantle port area of ​​Perth.

The girl was pulled from the water with serious injuries and died at the scene, police said in a statement.

Police believe the victim was with friends and jumped off a jet ski to swim with a pod of dolphins in the river when the shark attack happened.

Authorities were unsure what type of shark had attacked the girl, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

People were urged to be extra careful in the Swan River around Fremantle following the mayhem.

The last fatal shark attack in Western Australian waters was in November 2021 when a 57-year-old man was killed by a great white shark at Perth’s Port Beach.

A man was seriously injured by a bull shark while swimming in the Swan River in January 2021.

More than 100 species of sharks live in the waters of Western Australia – the country’s largest state, with bull sharks often found several miles upstream.

The risk of shark attacks in the state is low, according to the state government, which has set up a dedicated shark response unit to work with first responders on shark incidents.

On the east coast, several Sydney beaches, including iconic Bondi and Bronte, were closed last February after a swimmer died in a shark attack, the first such fatality on the city’s beaches in nearly 60 years.

Australia ranked behind the United States only in the number of unprovoked shark bites on humans in 2021, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.