Shark Kills Swimmer Steps From City Beach

A man was killed by a shark while swimming off Sorrento Beach in Perth's northern suburbs on Friday morning, Western Australia police said.

Boats and helicopters searched the ocean off the beach after the late-morning attack. Police would not say whether possible remains had been found, but said in a statement they were confident the swimmer died as a result of the attack.

Emergency services were called to a reported shark incident in the water off Sorrento at around 10:30 a.m. local time, according to the Western Australia Police Force. "It was reported a male swimmer had been bitten by a shark while swimming along the coast," the police statement said.

Witnesses described the swimmer as a man in his 60s. Police did not identify him.

Two men in the water, one back on the sand

Jacqui Rapaic was walking the beach with a friend when it happened. "My friend said, 'Jac, I think there's been a shark attack' and I looked out to the ocean and I could see a pool of blood," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She believed two men had been swimming, and that only one of them made it back to shore.

"I hugged onto my friend … [we] felt rather traumatised at that point," Rapaic said. "It happened so quickly."

Darrel Haythornthwaite, who saw the attack, told Nine Network television that the victim had been swimming with a friend who was left shaken. "I was just shocked. I mean, I feel for his mate. He's apologized and said 'I didn't save my mate,'" Haythornthwaite said. "I said, 'You couldn't have done anything.'"

Ingrid Mitchell, who swims at the beach every day, put it to Nine this way: "How do you just watch someone be mauled to pieces in front of you, basically? It's pretty hard."

What people on the beach saw

Ryan Rowe, a local resident, got to the beach shortly afterward and was told by an onlooker 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," Rowe told The West Australian newspaper.

Russell James was there when the shark alarm went off. He described police and ambulances on the sand, a handful of people standing at the water's edge near the groyne, and what looked like a couple of surfboards or paddle boards down by the beach. Officers were later seen along the shoreline next to a red surfboard.

The search found no trace of him

Police said a helicopter, Water Police officers, the RAC Rescue Helicopter and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Fisheries vessels conducted an extensive search of the area. The hunt across the water off Sorrento turned up no trace of the victim.

Three St John Ambulance crews were sent to the beach, one of them responding as a priority call. St John WA had received reports of the attack at 10:15 a.m. local time.

Surf Life Saving WA said in a social media post that a shark of an unidentified species was involved, and that the incident happened about 50 meters offshore.

A shark was reported minutes before the attack

The Western Australia government's SharkSmart site logged two sightings around the time of the attack. At 10:22 a.m., a member of the public reported a 2.5 meter (8.2 feet) shark of unknown species roughly 160 feet offshore.

The second report came at about 12:49 p.m., a 5 meter (16.4 feet) white shark. That one was logged at the nearby Boyinaboat reef just after noon. There was no confirmation that it was the shark involved in the attack.

Nearly 12 kilometers of coastline shut

The death triggered the closure of almost 12 kilometers of beach, from Marmion to Iluka, until at least noon on Saturday. The City of Joondalup also closed Hillarys, Whitfords and Mullaloo beaches, according to SharkSmart, and shut every beach inside its boundaries as a precaution.

Sorrento is not a remote stretch of coast. It sits about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from Perth's central business district and just south of Hillarys marina, which has multiple restaurants and cafes. It is a popular swimming spot for people who live in the northern suburbs.

The barrier came out in 2020

Part of Sorrento Beach used to have a shark barrier. It was removed in 2020.

Barriers are still used at Cottesloe, Coogee, Quinns Beach in Wanneroo and Bathers Beach in Fremantle. Some of those are seasonal and are not installed until October.

Helicopter patrols had restarted a week earlier

Surf Lifesaving WA had begun its helicopter shark patrols on weekends just one week before Friday's attack, ahead of the summer season. Daily patrols were not scheduled to start until September 26.

Friday was a weekday.

Premier Roger Cook says he is deeply saddened

WA Premier Roger Cook said in a social media post that he was "deeply saddened" to hear of the attack. "This is a heartbreaking tragedy and my thoughts are with the victim's family and loved ones, as well as the first responders who attended the scene," he said.

Hillarys MP Caitlin Collins, whose electorate takes in Sorrento Beach, said the attack was deeply distressing for the community. "My thoughts are with the victim's loved ones and everyone who witnessed or is affected by the situation," she said in a social media post.

Collins said she had spoken with the minister and that authorities were continuing to manage the situation. "Sorrento Beach is a place so many of us love and an incident like this is incredibly difficult for everyone who spends time along our coastline," she said.

Second attack in the state in four days

On Monday, a surfer was seriously hurt in a shark attack near Geraldton, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Perth. Geraldton firefighter Mel Ismail was in hospital in a serious but stable condition after being bitten at Glenfield Beach.

Ismail, 56, lost his foot from just above the ankle, his rescuer told the ABC. Friday's death at Sorrento came four days later.

The 24th fatal attack in WA since 2000

The swimmer's death is the 24th fatal shark attack in Western Australia since 2000. Ten of those have happened in the Perth metropolitan area. Three have happened this year.

In May, spearfisher Steven Mattaboni died after a shark attack off Rottnest Island. A few weeks later, another spearfisher, Daniel Turpin, died after a shark attack near Albany, on the state's south coast.

A bad year across Australia

Friday's death was the fifth fatal shark attack in Australia this year, The Associated Press reported.

In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbour. That attack was one of four recorded in the span of two days, which pushed officials to close dozens of the city's beaches.

Three spearfishing divers were killed by sharks off the Australian coast in three weeks over May and June, two in Western Australia and the third in Queensland.

Also in June, a schoolteacher was mauled at Coogee in Sydney, one of the country's most popular beaches, and had part of her left arm amputated. She recalled last month swinging a "left hook" at the shark before it dragged her underwater.

What the long-term numbers look like

Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership that includes Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales state government.

The International Shark Attack File, the global database kept by the University of Florida, has recorded more than 1,280 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, including more than 250 fatal ones. Such incidents have become more common as the population has grown and activities like surfing and scuba diving have gained popularity.

Sorrento Beach remains closed to swimmers. Reopening times can change as authorities assess conditions on the water, and the City of Joondalup's closures were posted to SharkSmart along with the state's other beach notices. Any identification of the man who died will come from WA Police.