A woman and a child were bitten by a shark in the
popular Whitsunday Islands near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on
Thursday in the latest of a string of such attacks, reports and
officials said.
Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off the east coast
of Australia are known for their extraordinary natural beauty and
marine life
The Queensland state ambulance
service said the pair were rushed to hospital with leg and foot wounds
from the attack along a beach on Hamilton Island, but the injuries were
not life-threatening.
Local media said the victims were a woman and young child playing in the shallow waters of the island’s Catseye Beach.
It was the latest in a series of
shark attacks in waters around the Whitsunday islands, which had been
considered safe for swimming.
One man died of his injuries from an attack in November, and a 12-year-old girl lost a leg after another mauling in September.
Australia has one of the world’s highest incidences of shark attacks, but fatalities remain rare.
There were 20 “unprovoked” shark attacks off
the vast continent’s coast in 2018, though only one was fatal, according
to data compiled by the Taronga Zoo in Sydney.
Hamilton island grabbed global headlines in
2009 when 34,000 people entered a competition to land the “Best Job in
the World” — a six-month stint as “caretaker” of the idyllic
destination.