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A tiger shark swims through the ocean (symbolic image)
Photo:
Norbert Probst / imagebroker / imago images
Almost every year people are killed by shark attacks on the Australian coast - there were eight in the past year alone.
Now there has been the first fatality in 2021: The police in the state of New South Wales announced that the 50-year-old man was bitten in the right thigh in Tuncurry Beach about 300 kilometers north of Sydney.
Rescue workers pulled the seriously injured man out of the water in the morning and tried to revive him.
However, the Australian died on the beach.
It is unclear what type of shark the attacking animal was.
Drone search for more sharks
Brian Wilcox, chief of local coastal rescue, told Australian television broadcaster ABC that two sharks were found in a drone operation following the attack.
“It's unprecedented.
I don't remember a shark attack in this area. ”In the coming days, more drone missions were to ensure that none of the animals were near Tuncurry Beach.
With the eight fatal attacks last year, Australia had as many shark deaths as it has not since 1934.
Over the past five decades, the country has seen an average of one fatal attack per year - and none at all in 2019.
According to the shark attack statistics of the Australian nature conservation association Taronga, two people were injured in attacks this year before, but the surfer from Tuncurry Beach is the first to die.
Most recently, in November 2020, a 55-year-old surfer was killed near the city of Broome in the northwest of the country.
sol / dpa / ap