08 December 2023 , 15:33
933
0
A young man has been "very seriously injured" in a suspected shark attack at a remote beach in central Queensland, Australia.
The unnamed victim, reportedly aged in his 20s, is in a serious condition after he was mauled by the beast at Seventeen Seventy just after 4:30pm local time on Friday. Paramedics were called to 1770 beach, after reports of an injured swimmer and it is understood he was bitten on his leg.
"Paramedics have transported one patient in a serious condition with a leg injury to Bundaberg Hosptial following an earlier shark bite", Queensland Ambulance Service said in a post on social media. The attack comes a little over a week since a 21-year-old man was bitten while hunting sea cucumbers in the far northern reaches of the Great Barrier Reef. He was taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition with injuries to his right arm and shoulder.
In November, 70-year-old Ian Brophy was about to step into the sea at Granite Beach, South Australia when he heard someone shout "shark." He said he spotted the surfer, 55, "getting torn apart" in front of shocked beachgoers, before there was "blood everywhere" and nothing left but the surfer's board following the attack. Mr Brophy said he has "never seen anything like that" in his sixty years of surfing. Recalling the horrifying attack, he told The Advertiser: "As I turned around I saw the shark go and just launch and bite… over the top of the guy and bite and drag him down under the water and then nothing for a minute or two and blood everywhere and then up pops the board.
"That's all it was, was this guy getting torn apart. I saw him in the wave and the shark had his body in his mouth. It was pretty gruesome. And then after he digested that first, whether it be his head or his arms or whatever, he came back in about four minutes and all that was left was the board."
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Witness Jeff Schmucker rushed to the water and tried to find the victim's body whilst bravely searching on his jet ski. But he encountered the suspected shark, which he labelled a "f**king monster." He said the creature had encircled him on his jet ski at one point. "It attacked him from the side. He went under once and came up again and went under again and that's the last the lad saw of him," Mr Schmucker told 7News. He said he could only find the victim's surfboard which had a large bite mark in it. Police raced to the scene and searched with the help of Police Water Operations, PolAir, State Emergency Service and volunteers following the incident. However, the surfer's remains are yet to be found.
In 2021, the Australian Shark Incident Database reported a total of 24 human/shark incidents in Australia, 19 of these incidents were unprovoked and seven victims were swimming.