A woman filming a shark documentary was attacked by what she thinks was a shark on her “relaxing” day off.
The 29-year-old was snorkelling 100 metres from a pier off the coast of Fitzroy Island in North Queensland while snorkelling on Tuesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
In video shared by Australian publication The Age, she can be heard yelling, “I still love sharks. Sharks are beautiful,” while being wheeled past reporters towards a medical helicopter that took her to a Cairns hospital.
The ABC says the unidentified filmmaker is in stable condition now, but suffered injuries to her lower left leg along with a possible ankle fracture.
Tyler Cumming, a paramedic who treated her, said she was “in a little bit of pain, but managed to get it under control.”
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“She only saw (the shark) for a couple of seconds so couldn’t identify it,” he told the ABC. “She was relaxing on Fitzroy Island. She’s actually … doing a shark documentary and this is her day off today.”
Staff on the island performed first aid on the woman until emergency services arrived, Fitzroy Island Resort CEO Glen Macdonald said, adding that she was in “high spirits.”
“She was laughing with staff and when questioned said she did not know what had caused the injury,” he added.
The South Pacific has had a few shark attacks, some fatal, within the past nine days.
On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy died after being bitten by a shark while surfing in New South Wales. A week earlier, a 36-year-old man died after being attacked by a shark while spearfishing off Fraser Island.
Macdonald told ABC he’d never heard of a shark attack at Fitzroy Island in the past.
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