A teen has been killed by a shark while swimming with friends. The 16-year-old girl suffered fatal injuries from the attack on Saturday afternoon as her friends were forced to witness the gruesome scene.
The incident happened near the Fremantle Traffic Bridge over the Swan River in Perth, Australia. It is the first deadly shark attack in the area in nearly a century.
It is believed the girl had been on jet skis with friends when she jumped into the water to swim with nearby dolphins. A bull shark has been identified as the most likely culprit but formal identification has not yet taken place.
The Mirror reports that esperate scenes erupted as rescuers battled to save the girl's life but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Paul Robinson, police acting inspector for the Fremantle district told reporters: ""It's very early on, what we're being advised is that she was with friends on the river."
"They were on jet skis. Possibly a pod of dolphins were being seen nearby and the young female jumped in to swim nearby the dolphins." He described the incident as "very, very traumatic" and said the girl's family, from Perth, were "absolutely devastated by the news".
Robinson added: "It’s an extremely traumatic event for everyone involved and everyone who knew the young girl, so I won’t be going into the extent of the injuries. It is unusual for a shark to be that far down the river … at this point in time an alert has been put out, a shark warning just to let people know this incident has taken place."
A teenage witness was with a group of friends jumping from the old Fremantle traffic bridge rope swing when they noticed a jetski and nearby swimmers rushing to shore. Joshua, 16, told WAToday : "There were about seven of us and we were on the rope swing for around an hour or two.
"We saw the dolphins, there were dolphins there. When all the police came by we thought we were in trouble."
Joshua said the police went past the group but did not say anything to them. He added: "They looked at us and they didn’t tell us about it which is kind of worrying as after this had happened we were still jumping off the rope swim.
"Another person then came over on a jet ski and told us to get out of the water. We were so grateful that it wasn’t one of us, of course we’re so sorry for what happened and for the family involved."
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