A swathe of Sydney beaches have been closed for the foreseeable future as a man fights for his life following a third shark attack in two days.<\/p>\n
The man, believed to be in his 20s, is in a critical condition after he was bitten by a shark at North Steyne Beach at Manly in Sydney’s north about 6.20pm on Monday evening, according to NSW Police.<\/p>\n
He was pulled from the water by members of the public and has been taken to Royal North Shore Hospital to be treated for serious leg injuries.<\/p>\n
It was the third shark attack at a Sydney beach in two days after an 11-year-old surfer had his board bitten by a shark at Dee Why just a few kilometres away, and a 13-year-old boy was attacked while swimming in Sydney’s east on Sunday.<\/p>\n
All of Sydney’s Northern Beaches have been closed in response until further notice.<\/p>\n
The 11-year-old was surfing at Dee Why Beach earlier on Monday when a shark bit his board several times, taking a chunk out of the mid-section.<\/p>\n
The surfer was unharmed and helped by others out of the water.<\/p>\n
Northern Beaches Council lifeguards immediately sounded the alarm, erected shark warning signs and dispatched a jet ski to patrol the water. <\/p>\n
Surf Life Saving NSW launched a drone to assist with the investigation but there have been no further sightings since the attack before midday. <\/p>\n
“Council lifeguards will continue to patrol for the remainder of the day and tomorrow,” a Northern Beaches Council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The 15cm bite mark on the young surfer’s board suggests he was most likely attacked by a bull shark, according to shark biologists from the primary industries department. <\/p>\n
The shark net had been set as normal on Dee Why Beach, which was closed at the time of attack because of large swells and dangerous surf. <\/p>\n
The attack comes less than 24 hours after three teenagers heroically leapt into action to save the life of a friend who was critically injured in a shark attack in eastern Sydney.<\/p>\n
The 13-year-old boy remains in hospital with injuries to both legs after being bitten by a shark at a swimming spot in Vaucluse on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Dee Why is also a stone’s throw from where avid surfer Mercury Psillakis, 57, was fatally mauled by a shark in September.<\/p>\n
Police on Monday urged people not to swim in murky, low-visibility water after bucketing rain drenched Sydney and its surrounds at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Extra fresh water in the harbour after recent heavy rain, combined with the splashing effect from people jumping off a rock face, created a “perfect storm” for Sunday’s shark attack, Superintendent Joseph McNulty said.<\/p>\n
“I would recommend not swimming in the harbour or our other river systems across NSW at this time,” he told reporters before the Dee Why incident was reported.<\/p>\n
Heavy swell has also prevented the operation of smart drumlines, which notify authorities of shark activity along most of the NSW coast since Sunday.<\/p>\n
The teenager injured in Sunday’s attack underwent surgery overnight and remained in a critical condition at Randwick Children’s Hospital on Monday, surrounded by family.<\/p>\n
He and his friends were jumping off a six-metre rock into the ocean when the shark struck.<\/p>\n
At least one of the victim’s friends jumped into the water and pulled him out after the attack, while the others called for emergency services, Supt McNulty said.<\/p>\n
“The actions of his mates who have gone into the water to pull him out have been nothing but brave,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Those actions of those young men are brave under the circumstances and very confronting injuries for those boys to see, but I suppose that’s mateship.”<\/p>\n
The primary industries department is working to identify the species of shark involved but initial reports suggest it was a bull shark. <\/p>\n
Multiple swimmers have been attacked by sharks in the harbour in recent years, including a young woman who was bitten on the leg at Elizabeth Bay in early 2024.<\/p>\n
Psillakis’s death – at Long Reef Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches – caused the state government to pull a trial to remove a handful of shark meshing nets off popular beaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A swathe of Sydney beaches have been closed for the foreseeable future as a man fights for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-241630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}