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An Australian lifeguard helped rescue a woman who was critically injured by a white shark while swimming off a popular Sydney beach on Saturday.
The 35-year-old woman, who has not been identified, suffered serious leg and arm injuries in the morning attack at Coogee Beach, according to a police statement. She was swimming with two friends about 100 feet from shore when she was attacked, ambulance official Michael Corlis said. Lifeguard Tony Waller said the shark was about 11 feet long.
Lifeguard Charlie Verco told Sydney newspaper The Sunday Telegraph that he was on his paddleboard when he saw the shark emerge.
“I saw the shark come out of the water and just the size of it shocked me,” Verco told the paper. “I kept paddling towards her and the shark took her underwater and I was going, ‘What do I do now?’ A couple of seconds later, she popped up again.”
Ian Ferguson, an off-duty hospital doctor who was at the beach with his family, said there was a “big cloud of blood in the water.”
Nadir Kinani/AAP via AP
Verco, the first rescuer on the scene, said the woman was too weak to climb onto his paddleboard. He was able to grab her by the arm and pull her towards the beach. Other bystanders helped the pair back to shor, where Ferguson and others applied tourniquets.
Ferguson told The Sunday Telegraph the woman had a 12-inch-wide bite on her thigh, with exposed bone, and a similar wound on her arm. She was airlifted to an area hospital, and police described her condition as critical. Corlis said that the injuries will require “a lot of surgery,” according to Sky News.
The beach and others in the area will be closed for 24 hours, according to Sky News.
Australia has recorded a number of shark attacks already in 2026. Three spearfishing divers have been killed in less than a month. White sharks were responsible for two of the attacks, while bull sharks had been seen in the area of the other incident. In January, a 12-year-old boy died after being mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. There have also been several non-fatal incidents.
The International Shark Attack File, a database of global shark attacks maintained by the University of Florida, has recorded more than 1,280 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, including more than 250 fatal incidents. Such incidents have become more common as the population has grown and activities such as surfing and scuba diving have gained popularity.
