Police have praised the courage of surfers who pulled the body of a 21-year-old man to shore after he was killed by a shark off a popular West Australian beach.
An air and sea search was conducted for the shark yesterday after the attack on Kyle James Burden, 21, off Bunker Bay, about 300km south of Perth, on Sunday afternoon.
Police said Mr Burden, who was bodyboarding, died in the water after the shark bit a large part of his lower body.
It’s understood he had been in the Margaret River area for the past three to four years after moving from Sydney.
Dunsborough Police Sergeant Craig Anderson said Mr Burden’s mother was flying to West Australia from Queensland.
Sergeant Anderson told reporters at Bunker Bay, where the beach remained closed yesterday, that Sunday’s attack had occurred during ”perfect shark conditions”.
”It was dark and gloomy water, overcast skies, light rain falling, there was whale action in the bay and some seals about,” he said.
Sergeant Anderson said Mr Burden was in a group of about five surfing in the area.
”Out of nowhere it would appear that the young fellow has been taken by a shark,” he said.
”You have to take your hat off to the young fellow who was surfing with him and his mate for bringing him ashore.”
The type of shark involved has not been determined, with various reports saying it could have been a 4.5m white pointer, a bronze whaler or a tiger shark.
The attack happened just up the coast from Gracetown, where Nicholas Edwards, 31, was killed by a shark on August 17 last year.
The latest attack prompted calls for the shark to be hunted down. But police said there were no plans to kill the shark.
Witness Kyle Smith told the Seven Network the shark passed right underneath the other surfers. Another surfer, Dan Francesco, said he heard Mr Burden screaming. ”There was nothing you could do, it was probably like a five-second thing and he was under straight away. We all knew it was fatal.”
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