{"id":422018,"date":"2026-01-18T22:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422018\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T22:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:17:14","slug":"shark-attack-at-sydney-harbour-beach-leaves-boy-in-intensive-care-with-critical-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422018\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark attack at Sydney Harbour beach leaves boy in intensive care with critical injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quick response from the friends of a 12-year-old boy critically injured in a shark attack at a Sydney beach saved the boy’s life, police say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to Hermitage Foreshore Walk near Shark Beach at Vaucluse about 4:20pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He sustained critical injuries to both legs and was taken to the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick for treatment and is in intensive care.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

The boy was pulled aboard a vessel by water police officers, who attached two medical tourniquets. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

Marine Area Command commander Superintendent Joseph McNulty said on Monday “every second counted” and the quick response by the boy’s friends helped the boy survive the attack.<\/p>\n

“The actions of his mates who have gone into the water to pull him out have been nothing but brave, a gallant, recovery from his mates there,” he said.<\/p>\n

Superintendent McNulty said after being initially helped by those around him, the boy was pulled aboard a vessel by water police officers, who attached two medical tourniquets and administered first aid.<\/p>\n

He said it was a “textbook recovery”.<\/p>\n

“He’s in for the fight of his life now and the actions of emergency services yesterday gave him that chance,” Superintendent Mcnulty said.<\/p>\n

“It was a horrendous scene at the time when police attended. We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower limbs of that boy yesterday.”<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Emergency crews were called to a beach at Vaucluse after a 12-year-old was bitten by a shark. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

Bad weather may have led to shark activity<\/p>\n

He said heavy rainfall over the weekend may have contributed to the attack.<\/p>\n

“At the time yesterday, the boys were jumping off a 6-metre rock that’s popular in the Vaucluse area into that brackish water,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We believe the combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the actions of the splashing, may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack yesterday.<\/p>\n

“But thankfully what I can say \u2014 that boy is fighting for his life now.”<\/p>\n

They also said that he was rescued from the water by police officers “within minutes” of the Triple Zero (000) call being made.<\/p>\n

Footage from the scene showed him being treated by paramedics in a blue police rescue tent.<\/p>\n

\"Ambulance<\/p>\n

Police praised the efforts of his friends who jumped into the water to help rescue him. (ABC News: Nick Dole)<\/p>\n

Premier praises bravery<\/p>\n

Premier Chris Minns has praised the efforts of those who worked to save the boy’s life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just want to give a shout out to the young people who were in the water that got the young man … and did everything possible to save his life,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think that was a brave thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Mr Minns said he felt for the victim and his family.<\/p>\n

“We’re all thinking about him and his family in [what was] a tragic, tragic day in Sydney,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty\u00a0said there were a significant amount of bull sharks in Sydney Harbour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Deparment of Primary Industries and Regional Development is working with other authorities to identify the shark involved in this really terrible attack,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look back at how ABC readers and other Australians responded to this live
\n moment.<\/p>\n

51m agoSun 18 Jan 2026 at 9:25pm<\/p>\n

Emergency services wrap up press conference<\/p>\n

NSW Ambulance Inspector Giles Buchanan andNSW Police marine area commander Superintendent Joseph Mcnulty have now finished providing an update to media.<\/p>\n

You can find more details about the attack on the ABC website.<\/p>\n

56m agoSun 18 Jan 2026 at 9:20pm<\/p>\n

‘Not out of the woods’<\/p>\n

Inspector Buchanan says the boy’s condition was “touch and go”.<\/p>\n

Inspector Buchanan says the boy’s condition was “touch and go”.
“It was touch and go the entire time and still he’s in a very dangerous position. [He’s] not out of the woods yet.”<\/p>\n

58m agoSun 18 Jan 2026 at 9:18pm<\/p>\n

Resuscitation effort<\/p>\n

NSW Ambulance Inspector Giles Buchanan says when paramedics received the boy a “resuscitation effort” took place.<\/p>\n

“[He] required CPR. The medical team would have intubated the boy, to take over his breathing for him and continued circulating blood for him as well as giving a transfusion on the way to the hospital.”<\/p>\n

Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The quick response from the friends of a 12-year-old boy critically injured in a shark attack at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,36506,44,2733,4277,14322,221581,44439,670,222076,222075],"class_list":["post-422018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-emergency","tag-news","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-police","tag-shark-attack","tag-shark-beach","tag-shark-bite","tag-sydney","tag-sydneys-eastern-suburbs","tag-vaucluse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}