Shark attacks surfer in Sydney a day after boy was bitten and seriously injured while swimming with friends

A shark mauled a surfer on an ocean beach in Sydney on Monday in the third shark attack in the Australian city in two days, authorities said.

The surfer, believed to be in his 20s, was in a critical condition in hospital with serious leg injuries after the attack on a northern Sydney beach, police said.

“The man was pulled from the water by members of the public who began giving him first aid before the arrival of emergency services,” New South Wales State Police said in a statement.

All northern Sydney beaches were closed until further notice.

The attack on North Steyne Beach in the suburb of Manly came hours after a shark bit off a large chunk of a young surfer’s board about 2.5 miles north along the coast at Dee Why Point.

That surfer, apparently a boy of about 11 years old, was unharmed but the beach was immediately closed.

A large shark bit a 12-year-old boy on the legs while playing with friends on a Sydney Harbor beach on Sunday, leaving him fighting for life in hospital.

The boy and his friends were jumping from a 20-foot rock into the water off Shark Beach in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse when the predator attacked, police said.

“It was a horrendous scene at the time the police arrived. We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower extremities of that child,” said Superintendent Joseph McNulty, commander of the New South Wales Marine Police.

“That boy is fighting for his life now,” he told reporters Monday.

‘Perfect storm’ for shark attack

Recent heavy rain had reached the port and authorities believed the combination of brackish seawater and children’s splashing created a “perfect storm” for a shark attack, McNulty said.

He warned people not to go swimming in the harbor or other NSW river systems due to the risks.

He praised the boy’s “brave” young friends for pulling him out of the water on Sunday.

Officers put the unconscious boy in a police boat and gave him first aid, applying two tourniquets to stop the bleeding from his legs, McNulty said.

They tried to revive the child as they sped across the port toward a dock where paramedics from an ambulance were waiting.

The boy, who police confirmed was 12, was in intensive care at Sydney Children’s Hospital surrounded by family and friends, McNulty said.

There have been more than 1,280 shark incidents in Australia since 1791, of which more than 250 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators’ encounters with humans.

The International Shark Attack File, a database of global shark attacks managed by the University of Florida, noted that a “disproportionate” number of people Died from shark bites in Australia in 2023 compared to other countries in the world.

Increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures that appear to be influencing sharks’ migratory patterns may be contributing to a rise in attacks even though overfishing is depleting some species, scientists say.

A great white shark The mutilated surfer Mercury Psillakis in September on a popular northern Sydney beach.

Two months later, a bull shark killed woman swimming at a remote beach north of Sydney.

Two Americans were killed by sharks last month. Less than two weeks ago, 56 years Minnesota woman died After a shark attack in the US Virgin Islands.

Earlier this month, authorities in California confirmed that Erica News, 55, died from a shark attack. It disappeared in Monterey Bay at the end of December. The coroner determined that News died from “slash and blunt force injuries and water immersion due to a shark attack.”