One person has died after being attacked by sharks in Western Australia, marking the eighth death toll in the country this year.
At 8:40 a.m., police were called to Cable Beach, a popular tourist destination on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Australia.
The 55-year-old was pulled from the water with serious injuries and was treated by police before paramedics arrived. He died on the spot, police said.
Police said they later shot at the shark, which remained near the shore for about half an hour after the attack.
The species of shark was not immediately confirmed, but locals told reporters it could be a tiger shark, sometimes pulled close to shore by small fish.
The victim was doing body boarding about 30 to 40 meters from the beach, Jean Pierce, a police inspector at Kimberley District Office Fees, told reporters.
A couple on the beach saw the water fall into the water and ran to pull the man to safety. The man sustained injuries to his legs and arms.
“It’s a tragic event, very unexpected, a person is going out to have some fun in the water,” Mr Pierre said.
Park rangers immediately closed the beach and a fishing vessel was assigned to patrol the area.
The victim was the eighth to die in a shark attack in Australia this year, the highest toll since 1929 when nine people died.
The introduction of the shark species to popular beaches in the 1930s led to a significant reduction in fatal attacks.
The previous most recent attack in Western Australia was on 9 October, when a surfer was taken by a shark at Esperance on the south coast of the state.
Colleagues saw the man, Andrew Sharp, pull him off his board. After a three-day search, his body was not found but his surfboard and parts of his vest were found.
Broom, where the most recent shark attack took place, is about 1000 miles north of Perth, the largest city in western Australia.
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