Large bull shark kills woman and injures man in attack at NSW beach

A woman has died after a “large bull shark” attacked her and a man on the New South Wales mid-north coast at Kylies beach. The pair, both aged in their 20s, were swimming together at the beach at Crowdy Bay on Thursday morning when they were bitten, police said. Witnesses assisted and emergency services were called to the beach at about 6.30am, NSW police Chief Insp Timothy Bayly said. The woman died at the scene. The man suffered serious injuries but a bystander applied a makeshift tourniquet to his leg before paramedics and the Westpac rescue helicopter arrived, NSW Ambulance Supt Joshua Smyth said. “[That] potentially saved his life,” Smyth said on Thursday. Related: Are shark attacks on the rise in Australia? And what is being done to reduce the risk of fatal interactions? “The courage from some bystanders is amazing. To put yourself out there is very heroic and it did give us time to get to that male patient.” He was airlifted to John Hunter hospital in a critical condition. He subsequently improved to be in a serious but stable condition. Sharks rarely bite more than one person at once, but could do so while foraging for prey to deter other animals from intervening, according to Rob Harcourt, emeritus professor of marine ecology at Macquarie University. “It is quite unusual, but it’s not unheard of,” Harcourt said on Thursday. A Department of Primary Industries spokesperson said that “based on forensic analysis, DPIRD shark scientists have determined that a large bull shark was likely to have been involved”. The department deployed five “smart” drumlines at Kylies beach, which Bayly said could help catch the shark involved. Kylies beach did not previously have shark-detection technology. Drumlines 40km away and a listening station 20km away did not detect any sharks on Thursday morning. The “shark management alert in real time” drumlines used in NSW are a non-lethal tagging method that lures sharks using baited hooks. The Australian Museum notes that “the bull shark is one of the few sharks that are potentially dangerous to people and is probably responsible for most of the shark attacks in and around Sydney Harbour”. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Surf Life Saving NSW said Kylies and nearby beaches would be closed for at least 24 hours. Drones were surveilling the area for activity and dangers in the water. The remote stretch of coastline was unpatrolled, with the nearest surf club at Crowdy Head to the south, the organisation said. “This is a terrible tragedy and our deepest condolences go to the families of the woman and man involved,” the Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive, Steve Pearce, said on Thursday. “For now, please remain clear of the water at beaches in the vicinity.” Kylies beach is only accessible by unsealed roads, and the nearby campground has no potable water or electricity, according to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Interactive A report was to be prepared for the coroner. The woman’s death comes less than three months after Mercury Psillakis was killed by a 3.5-metre great white shark at Long Reef beach in Sydney in early September. This year, there have been five shark bite fatalities in Australia. In 2024, there were 13 unprovoked bites resulting in no fatalities – 10 fewer unprovoked bites than in 2023, when there were four fatalities. In 2020, there were seven unprovoked fatal attacks. Fatalities overall have become less common over the past century, per capita, because of faster emergency responses, tourniquet kits at every surf life saving club and first aid training, Harcourt said. Shark bites in general, however, have become more common across Australia in the past two decades, Prof Charlie Huveneers, the director of Flinders University’s Marine and Coastal Research Consortium, told Guardian Australia after Psillakis’s death. Coastal population growth, climate breakdown, habitat depletion, uptake of water sports, weather anomalies, distribution of prey and even better wetsuits – keeping people in the water for longer and over cooler months – are among 40 factors that, depending on the location, are likely to have contributed to the rise, Huveneers said in September.