SYDNEY – A 12-year-old boy is fighting for his life in hospital after being mauled by a large shark in Sydney Harbor, Australian police said Monday.
The marine predator struck on Sunday afternoon while the boy and his friends were jumping into the water off the harbor’s Shark Beach.
“It was a horrendous scene at the time when police attended. We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower limbs of that boy,” said Superintendent Joseph McNulty, New South Wales marine area police commander.
“That boy is fighting for his life now.”
At the time of the attack, the children were leaping into the water off a six-meter rock in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse.
Recent heavy rain had drained into the harbor, turning the water murky, police said.
“We believe the combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the actions of the splashing may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack yesterday,” McNulty told reporters.
He praised the boy’s “gallant” young friends for going to his aid before police arrived.
“He had been bitten by a large shark,” McNulty said.
Officers pulled the unconscious child on to a police boat and gave him first aid, applying two tourniquets to stem the bleeding from the boy’s legs, he said.
They tried to resuscitate the boy as they sped across the harbor to a wharf where ambulance paramedics were waiting.
