Girl, 17, mauled to death by shark while swimming at Queensland tourist hotspot

3 February 2025, 09:51

A shark warning sign placed on the beach at Manly, Sydney, Australia.
A shark warning sign placed on the beach at Manly, Sydney, Australia. Picture: Alamy

By Henry Moore

A teenage girl has been mauled to death by a shark while swimming in a popular tourist spot in Australia.

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The 17-year-old was on Bribie Island, north of Brisbane when the shark attacked, leaving her with fatal injuries.

Emergency service workers rushed to Woorim Beach just before 5pm on Monday, with Queensland Ambulance confirming they attended the scene following a “serious shark bite incident.”

“The female sustained life-threatening injuries and succumbed to those injuries just after 5pm,” police said.

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Great White Shark
Great White Shark. Picture: Getty

It comes after a 28-year-old surfer was mauled to death by a shark in South Australia last month.

Last year, a woman died from having her leg ripped off by a shark during a pleasure cruise off the coast of the Canary Islands.

The woman, believed to be a German national, was rushed to a hospital by Spanish Air Force helicopter following the attack, which took place 278 miles south-west of Gran Canaria’s airport.

However, the woman was sadly pronounced dead after being evacuated to nearby Doctor Negrin Hospital, located in the Gran Canarian capital of Las Palmas.

Shark attacks in Australia are rare with 255 fatal bites recorded since 1791 in the country of 27 million people, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.

The state of South Australia has registered more episodes in the past two years than usual.

There were five shark attacks off the state's coast in 2023, three of them fatal and one at the same beach as Thursday's incident.

Scientists at the time said they did not know the reason for the cluster.

There was one non-fatal shark bite off South Australia's coast in 2024.

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