A tragedy occurred when a teenage girl went for a swim in the Swan River, near North Fremantle. The girl was attempting to swim with some dolphins when a shark attacked her. Emergency personnel arrived and pulled her from the water, but she had suffered severe leg injuries and could not be saved. The species of shark responsible for the attack has not yet been disclosed, nor have any details of the injuries.
At around 3:30 pm, Western Australia Police were alerted to the incident, and it was reported that the girl was critically injured. Fremantle District Acting Inspector Paul Robinson described the incident as traumatic but declined to go into detail regarding the extent of the girl’s injuries. He also mentioned that it was unusual for a shark to venture so far up the river, so a warning was issued to alert people.
The Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development are currently investigating the possible shark bite. The last known fatal shark attack in the Swan River was in 1923, when a 13-year-old boy was killed while swimming at Freshwater Bay, near the boat shed of his school, Scotch College.