A shark kills a woman and seriously wounds another swimmer at an Australian beach

A woman was killed and a man seriously injured in a shark attack while swimming early Thursday morning at Crowdy Bay National Park on Australia’s east coast, police reported.

The attack occurred around 6:30 a.m. at Kylies Beach, located approximately 360 kilometers (224 miles) north of Sydney in a region known for its beach camping, fishing, and hiking trails. In response, authorities have closed beaches in the surrounding area indefinitely.

Police Chief Inspector Timothy Bayly confirmed that the victims, both in their mid-20s, were known to each other and were taking a morning swim when the shark attacked. While officials have not disclosed the specific circumstances of the incident, local media reports suggest the victims were European tourists.

A bystander provided critical first aid before emergency services arrived, applying a makeshift tourniquet to the injured man’s leg. Paramedic Josh Smyth credited this intervention with potentially preventing a second fatality.

“I just really need to have a shoutout to the bystander on the beach who put a makeshift tourniquet on the male’s leg which obviously potentially saved his life and allowed New South Wales Ambulance paramedics to get to him and render first aid,” Smyth told reporters.

Despite these efforts, the woman died at the scene. The injured man was airlifted to a hospital, where he remains in serious but stable condition.

The New South Wales state government has deployed five drumlines—baited hooks suspended from floats—off Kylies Beach in an attempt to catch the shark responsible for the attack. These measures complement existing drumlines already positioned to the north at Port Macquarie and to the south at Forster as part of ongoing shark management efforts.

Shark behavior experts note that multiple attacks by a single shark are exceptionally uncommon. Gavin Naylor, director of the University of Florida’s shark research program and manager of the International Shark Attack File database, emphasized the rarity of such incidents.

“It is very unusual. Individual shark attacks are rare. And shark attacks on two people by the same individual is not unheard of, but it’s very rare,” Naylor explained.

Naylor indicated that understanding the full context of the attack—including the shark’s behavior sequence, its size, and environmental factors—would be crucial in determining what motivated the bites. He noted that younger sharks sometimes show less discernment and may make “mistakes,” while proximity to prey such as seal colonies can increase attack probability.

“The few bites that we do have where a single shark has bitten multiple people, it’s usually tiger sharks. We’ve never seen white sharks do that unless somebody’s heroically jumping in the way,” Naylor added.

This incident adds to Australia’s history of shark encounters. In 2019, two British tourists were attacked by a single shark while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northeast coast, with one losing a foot and the other suffering leg injuries. More recently, a surfer was fatally mauled by a shark off a Sydney beach in September, with only fragments of the surfboard recovered.

The attack comes as Australia continues to grapple with balancing beach safety measures against marine conservation concerns. Various technologies and strategies, including aerial surveillance, smart drumlines, and shark barriers, have been implemented along Australia’s coastlines in recent years to mitigate the risk of attacks while minimizing harm to marine ecosystems.

Police have stated they will work with marine experts to identify the species of shark involved in Thursday’s attack as the investigation continues.