New details have emerged about the final moments before a young surfer was killed in a horror shark attack on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.
Emergency services were called to Ethel Beach at Innes National Park, 280km from Adelaide, about 1.30pm on Thursday after reports of a shark attack.
Police said the body of the 15-year-old boy was pulled from the waters, with detectives and crime scene investigators later brought to the scene.
As the community began to mourn on Friday, details also started to emerge about the horror attack at the beach, which is popular among surfers.
Local residents told The Advertiser on Thursday the teen, who is believed to have been an experienced paddleboarder, was bitten in the leg by the shark.
“The shark took his leg, and so another local guy ran out, jumped on his board and paddled out to help him,” one local told the Adelaide paper.
“The shark was circling them as the guy pulled the boy out of the water. There was a lot of blood. He brought him to shore but I think it was too late by then.”
The teen is understood to have been at Ethel Beach on a day trip from Adelaide and usually surfed at Seaford on the state’s mid coast. His father was also present.
The sighting of a shark and the subsequent attack were reported being about 30m from shore by tracking site Dorsal, though the size of the shark is unknown.
A local fishing charter operatorsaid the remote area was often frequented by big sharks, namely at Marion Bay, around the cape from Innes Beach.
They went on to reveal that the access roads to the remote swimming spot had been closed after the attack and that there was no reception until Marion Bay.
Local business owners, meanwhile, said it was the first attack they had heard of as the population balloons by “tenfold” over the summer holidays.
“People come down here to get away and reset … I’ve never come across anything like this when I’m out working with kids,” outdoor educator O’Reilly Gray said.
The attack is the latest in a string of horror deaths in South Australia, including a 55-year-old surfer Tod Gendle who was killed on the Eyre Peninsula in October.
In May, Elliston Primary School teacher, Simon Baccanello, 43, was surfing at Walkers Rock near Elliston when he is believed to have been killed by a shark.
The attack also comes as holidaymakers across the country descend on the nation’s beaches, despite a string of deaths and drownings, namely in NSW.
On Thursday, swimmers were ordered out of the water at world-famous Bondi Beach at 6.30pm after a shark alarm was triggered at the busy swim spot.