(TAN): In a fatal shark attack off Broome’s Cable Beach, a popular tourist beach in Western Australia, a man in his 50s was killed. This is the first incident of such a fatal shark attack in Broome after 1993, said media reports.
Police said to the media the man was bodyboarding about 40 metres off the coast when he was bitten by the shark, which was said to be about three to four metres long. The species of the shark is yet to be identified.
A couple swimming at the beach witnessed the attack and reportedly entered the water to save the man without any success. The shark remained in water close to the shore for about half an hour after the attack, according to reports.
This is the eighth fatal shark attack in Australian waters this year. The beach has been closed and the public is being urged to avoid local waters.
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Broome is renowned for great fishing and recreational fishers regularly encounter sharks, including potentially lethal tiger and bull sharks. Cable Beach is closed once or twice each year when potentially dangerous saltwater crocodiles travel along the coast.
But dangerous sharks are rare in the area and “something like this is unusual and really devastating,” said locals to media. WA Premier Mark McGowan expressed his sympathy for the man’s family.
