SYDNEY, Oct 30 (AFP) - A shark attacked an Australian woman in waters near a Western Australian naval base on Saturday, leaving her with a minor bite wound to her hip, officials said.
The 20-year-old suffered the shark bite as she was swimming off the north end of Garden Island naval base, south of Perth, the Fire and Emergency Services Authority said.
“The RAC Rescue helicopter was sent to an incident in Point Peron near Garden Island where a woman received minor injuries from a shark bite,” a FESA spokeswoman said. “The woman has been transported to Royal Perth hospital.”The woman told her rescuers the attacker was a three-metre-long great white shark, according to media reports. She was initially treated at the navy base before being airlifted to hospital.
It is the first significant shark attack since August, when a 31-year-old surfer was mauled to death near Gracetown, also south of Perth.
The Garden Island area is close to a seal colony, and shark attacks have killed a number of swimmers and surfers there in recent years.
Sharks are common in Australian waters but fatal attacks are rare, with only 53 fatalities in the last half-century, according to the Australian Shark Attack File. |
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