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Shark attacks diver in Sydney Harbour
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-11 09:49 SYDNEY – An Australian navy diver was seriously injured as he fought off a shark in a rare attack in Sydney Harbour on Wednesday, police said.
The 31-year-old diver was taking part in a defence exercise in the harbour when he was attacked, suffering severe injuries to his right hand and thigh, an ambulance spokesman said. He was rushed to hospital and straight into surgery. "The fact that he has been rushed into surgery indicates that it is quite serious," a hospital spokeswoman said. The attack took place near the Garden Island Naval Base in Wolloomooloo Bay, which is lined by upmarket restaurants and apartments, a water police spokeswoman said. The diver was taking part with a police colleague in a trial of new technologies to protect ports and ships from underwater attack. "It all happened very quickly, I'm told," the commander of the Australian fleet, Rear Admiral Nigel Coates, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "He fought the shark, punched it a few times. The shark disappeared," Coates said. "Our diver then swam to our nearby safety boat, which wasn't far away." The broadcaster said the diver was in a critical but stable condition. While shark attacks are not uncommon around Australia's vast coastline, Taronga Zoo shark attack expert John West told ABC no-one had been bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour since the late 1990s. "They're very, very uncommon," he said, with the last attack on a swimmer about 12 years ago up the Parramatta River that feeds into the harbour. "Then there's a couple in between, in 2002 and 2000, where rowers had their paddles or their skis bitten by a shark up in Parramatta River." The shark was most likely one of the bull sharks that feed in the harbour at this time of year, West said. He added that the last fatal attack in Sydney Harbour was in 1963, when a woman was killed by a bull shark in 1963. |
