A teenage girl who had jumped off her jet ski to try to swim with dolphins was killed by a shark in Australia Saturday.
The 16-year-old suffered critical injuries after apparently being attacked by the shark in Perth’s Swan River. She later died.
“There was possibly a pod of dolphins seen nearby and the young female jumped in the water to swim nearby the dolphins,” Police Acting Inspector Paul Robinson said, according to ABC News.
The victim’s friends were jet skiing with her at the time of the fatal incident.
“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 counseling services to anyone who did witness it or is affected by the incident,” Robinson reportedly said.
Some wildlife officials had said it was unusual for a shark to be in the waters of the Swan, which connects to the Indian Ocean.
“I’ve spoken to fisheries and water police and unfortunately we have no idea what type of shark it is,” Robinson said.
However, Andrew Chin, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, told CNN the rare encounter was not without precedent.
“The Swan River estuary is good bull shark habitat and this means people can come into close contact with them,” Chin reportedly said.
“Everyone should follow swimmer and shark safety advice from their local authorities [and] also be individually prepared in case the worst happens.”
The last fatal shark attack in Western Australia had occurred at a Perth beach in November of 2021.
With Post wires
