Hundreds of swimmers gather at a Sydney beach to honour mother mauled in shark attack
Leah Stewart was attacked by a suspected great white shark while swimming at Coogee Beach in Sydney last week.
Hundreds of swimmers have gathered at Coogee Beach in Sydney today to honour a mother who was mauled by a suspected great white shark just over a week ago.
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The community swim-out took place on Sunday morning as a show of support for Leah Stewart, a 35-year-old primary school teacher and mother of an 18-month-old daughter, who remains in critical condition in hospital.
Ms Stewart was attacked on June 13 while swimming inside the safety flags, less than 30 metres from shore.
Organisers say more than 1,000 people turned up at the popular beach in eastern Sydney to show solidarity with Stewart and her family after the attack.
She has undergone multiple surgeries, including the amputation of an arm, and is being treated at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney after being pulled from the water by 24-year-old Charlie Verco, who paddled into the water and pulled the teacher on to his surfboard.
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The suspected attacker was a 3.5-metre great white shark, a protected species.
After the swim, Coogee Surf Life Saving Club hosted a beachside barbecue and bake sale, with proceeds going to the family, while a GoFundMe page has raised more than $460,000 for Stewart’s recovery.
Stewart’s family has described the support as overwhelming, saying they have been “devastated” by the injuries but bolstered by the community response from Coogee and across Australia.
In the aftermath, beaches across Sydney’s eastern suburbs were closed for 24 hours, and the New South Wales government is considering new shark-safety measures, including low-altitude drone surveillance.
The state agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, confirmed a temporary exemption from aviation rules has been granted to allow ongoing drone monitoring over Coogee Beach for the rest of the week.
The Coogee Beach swim-out comes amid a year of unusually high shark activity in Australia, which has already seen at least three fatal attacks.