Additional Coverage:
Sydney, Australia – A 12-year-old boy is in critical condition after a harrowing shark attack in Sydney Harbour on Sunday, officials reported Monday. The incident occurred near Shark Beach in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, where the boy was jumping off rocks with friends when he was severely bitten on both legs.
Authorities believe a bull shark was responsible for the attack. “He is in for the fight of his life now, and the actions of emergency services yesterday gave him that chance,” stated Joseph McNulty, commander of the New South Wales Police Marine Area Command, to reporters.
The attack follows several days of heavy rainfall, which has significantly increased the amount of freshwater in the typically saltwater Sydney Harbour. Bull sharks are known to favor brackish water environments. “We believe the combination of the brackish water, the freshwater, the actions of the splashing may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack yesterday,” McNulty explained.
Police arriving at the scene described it as “horrendous,” immediately initiating life-saving procedures. “The boy had lost his pulse, there was a large blood loss and the double tourniquet stemmed that flow of blood loss,” McNulty recounted.
Remarkably, before emergency services arrived, one of the boy’s friends bravely entered the water to pull him out, with another friend assisting them ashore. McNulty commended their actions, saying, “Those actions of those young men are brave under those circumstances – and very confronting injuries for those boys to see – but I suppose that’s mateship.”
According to the Australian Shark Attack File, Australia experiences an average of 20 shark incidents resulting in injuries annually, with an average of 2.8 fatalities per year over the last decade. The organization emphasizes that drowning and road accidents claim far more lives.