15 March 2024 , 10:28
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A 13-year-old girl has reportedly been bitten by a shark off Bargara Beach in Queensland, Australia.
Paramedics were called to the scene at 4pm Friday local time, where the girl was found with injuries to her back, legs and stomach.
She had been taken to the premises of a nearby surfing club to stop further bleeding and quickly rushed to hospital, where she is currently recieving treatment.
The girl is said to be "calm" and in a stable condition, and the attack is understood not to be life threatening. Her parents have been informed.
Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) operations supervisor, Matthew Davenport, told local reporters she is "very lucky" not to have sustained more serious injuries. The beach, which is around 250 miles north of Brisbane, is not a known shark hotspot, he added.
Teen girl mauled to death by shark in front of her friends in horrendous attack
The shark attack only lasted a short amount of time, and the shark is thought to have let go quickly after biting soft tissue on the girl's buttocks and abdomen - meaning she avoided more severe injuries. A previous statement from QAS read: "One patient is being treated for non-life-threatening minor wounds after a reported shark bite in the water off Fred Courtice Avenue at 4.02pm."
In December, a man in his 20s was left "very seriously injured" after shark savaged his leg at a beach in Queensland. Matteo Mariotti was snorkelling off the coast at 1770 Beach when he was attacked by the shark on both his legs, leaving one ambulance supervisor to describe his condition as "one of the most serious injuries I have ever seen" In 2021, the Australian Shark Incident Database reported a total of 24 human-shark incidents in Australia, 19 of these incidents were unprovoked and seven victims were swimming.