A 16-year-old girl in Australia was killed in a suspected shark attack after she jumped off her jet ski to swim with dolphins.
Police in Perth say the girl was pulled from the Swan River with critical injuries, ABC News reported.
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Emergency crews treated her but she died at the scene, Police Acting Inspector Paul Robinson told the news outlet, who said the victim was with her friends, all of whom were on jet skis.
“There was possibly a pod of dolphins seen nearby and the young female jumped in the water to swim nearby the dolphins,” Robinson said.
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“The family weren’t there when this took place, however, her friends were and as you can imagine this is an extremely traumatic incident for anyone to witness so obviously we’re offering counselling services to anyone who did witness it or is affected by the incident,” he said.
The Department of Fisheries did advise that it was unusual for a shark to be so far down the river.
“I’ve spoken to fisheries and water police and unfortunately we have no idea what type of shark it is,” Robinson said.
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This wasn’t the first attack in Swan River.
A bull shark attacked a local man in 2021, but he survived after he was pulled from the water by witnesses who tried to stop the bleeding from his leg, CNN reported.
“The Swan River estuary is good bull shark habitat and this means people can come into close contact with them,” Andrew Chin, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, told CNN. “Unfortunately some encounters end badly and in this case with tragic results.”
He added: “Bull sharks can be very bold but it is also important to remember that these incidents are very, very rare events – (though) heartbreaking and traumatizing for everyone involved.”