A man in his 60s has died in a shark attack off Sorrento Beach in Perth, Western Australia, after beachgoers watched the incident unfold.
Boats and helicopters were used to search the water following the late-morning attack, police said. The beach was closed to swimmers while the operation continued.
Police did not say whether any remains had been recovered, but said they were confident the swimmer had died as a result of the attack.
Witnesses reported seeing blood in the water. Beach walker Jacqui Rapaic said a friend alerted her to a possible attack before she saw “a pool of blood” in the ocean.
Another witness, identified only as Darrel, said the victim had been swimming with a friend who was left traumatised by what happened.
“I was just shocked. I mean, I feel for his mate. He’s apologized and said ‘I didn’t save my mate,’” Darrel said.
He added: “I said ‘You couldn’t have done anything.’”
Ingrid Mitchell, who swims at the beach daily, said: “How do you just watch someone be mauled to pieces in front of you, basically? It’s pretty hard.”
Local resident Ryan Rowe said he arrived at the beach shortly afterwards and was told that someone had been bitten by a shark.
“I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body,” he said.
The attack came days after a surfer suffered a serious leg injury in a separate incident near Geraldton, about 400 kilometres north of Perth.
Fatal shark attacks in Australia
There have been at least five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year, including the death of a 12-year-old boy who was bitten while swimming in Sydney Harbour in January.
Three divers were fatally attacked in separate incidents between May and June, with two deaths in Western Australia and one in Queensland. In June, a schoolteacher was attacked at a Sydney beach and later recalled hitting the shark with a “left hook” before being dragged underwater.
Australia has recorded an average of between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.
