Man dies after shark attack on Australia’s east coast

A man died after being attacked by a shark at a beach in Australia’s eastern state of New South Wales (NSW) on Tuesday, the state’s ambulance service said.

NSW Ambulance said at 11:30 a.m (0130 GMT) that paramedics were responding to reports that a man was bitten by a shark at Tuncurry Beach, also known as Nine Mile Beach, some 300 kilometres north of Sydney.

“In spite of the best efforts of paramedics and bystanders at the scene, the man could not be resuscitated,’’ the ambulance service tweeted about an hour later.

According to local media reports, the man in his 50s, went into cardiac arrest after being bitten on his right upper thigh while surfing.

He was treated at the scene after going into cardiac arrest.

Fatal shark attacks in Australian waters increased eightfold in 2020, making it the deadliest year on record since 1934.

In 2020, Australia tallied eight deadly shark attacks, according to Taronga Zoo’s Shark Attack File, the country’s leading source of shark attack data.

For about 50 years, there has been on average one fatal shark attack per year, and in 2019 there were none.