A shark attacked and killed a man who was fishing with his family in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on Saturday, local police said.
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“The man was fishing with family members when he was bitten by a shark,” Queensland State Police said in a statement.
He suffered “fatal injuries” and died about an hour and a half later, according to the same source.
The victim was bitten on the neck by the animal on Saturday afternoon off the island of Humpy on the country’s east coast, emergency services said.
The man, aged 40, was a pastor in the town of Rockhampton in the state of Queensland (north-east), local media, including the public channel ABC, said.
Authorities were unable to confirm whether he was spear fishing at the time. Photos posted by the victim on social media in 2021 showed him on board a boat in a diving suit, holding up large fish.
Humpy Island, which lies within the Keppel Bay Islands National Park in the Great Barrier Reef, has a popular campground which provides easy access to the reefs for scuba diving and diving in apnea.
The last fatal shark attack in the country dates back to December 2023, when a 15-year-old boy was killed in a surfing area in the state of South Australia.
More than 1,200 incidents involving sharks have been recorded in Australia since 1791, of which more than 250 resulted in fatalities, according to national data.
The most serious bites are caused by white sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks.
