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A teenage boy was killed in a Thursday shark attack, officials said.
South Australia Police responded to reports of a shark attack around 1:30 p.m. local time, authorities said. The teen was fatally attacked near Ethel Beach in the Innes National Park, about 180 miles west of Adelaide.
“Sadly the body of a teenage boy was recovered from the water,” police said.
While police have not yet identified the teen, it’s believed he’s a 14-year-old boy who was vacationing in the area with his family, 7NEWS reported. The teen was in the water surfing with his father when he was attacked.
The area of the attack is very popular with tourists, fishers and surfers, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
In 2022, Australia had the second-highest number of unprovoked shark bites – with the United States being first. There have been more than 1,100 individual investigations of shark bites in Australia since 1791, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.
Earlier this year, a teenage girl was killed in a suspected shark attack in the Western Australian city of Perth after she jumped from her jet ski, police said at the time. A teacher was attacked by a shark in May and a shark attack last month left a woman with “extremely serious” head injuries.
While more than 160 species of sharks live in Australia’s waters, there are five that are considered dangerous in South Australia, according to the local government. They are the White Shark, the Common Thresher Shark, the Shortfin Mako Shark, the Bronze Whaler Shark and the Dusky Shark.
Only around a dozen of the more than 300 species of sharks in the world have been involved in attacks on humans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Cara Tabachnick and Jennifer Earl contributed reporting.
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