On June 29th, a 16-year-old boy was attacked by a nearly 7-foot-long shark while swimming off Australia’s Gold Coast. The boy suffered severe lacerations to his right leg and hand. Even more shocking, as he tried to swim back to shore, the shark relentlessly chased him into shallow water, causing panic among bystanders and plunging the scene into chaos.
According to the New York Post, the incident occurred shortly after 4 p.m. Eyewitnesses reported that after the shark struck, several people rushed toward the shore in an attempt to help. Video footage taken by someone at the scene shows the boy struggling to swim to shore with the shark’s dorsal fin clearly visible on the water’s surface, right behind him. At one point, a bystander even threw punches at the shark to try to scare it away.
Thanks to the efforts of concerned bystanders, the boy was eventually pulled back ashore. People used a surfboard as a stretcher to carry him away from the beach. Fortunately, an off-duty paramedic from Queensland who happened to be on vacation was at the scene and immediately applied tourniquets to stem the heavy bleeding from the boy’s limbs.
Piers, the CEO of New South Wales Surf Lifesaving, confirmed that when rescue teams arrived, the boy’s wounds were already bandaged and the tourniquets were clearly the work of a professional.
The boy was later airlifted to Gold Coast University Hospital. Despite his serious injuries, he is currently in stable condition.