PERTH, Australia -- 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 Saturday.
The 16-year-old was pulled from the Swan River with critical injuries. Emergency personnel provided medical assistance to her at the scene but she died, said Police Acting Inspector Paul Robinson.
He said the victim was with her friends on jet skis. "There was possibly a pod of dolphins seen nearby and the young female jumped in the water to swim nearby the dolphins.
"The family weren’t there when this took place, however, her friends were and as you can imagine this is an extremely traumatic incident for anyone to witness so obviously we’re offering counselling services to anyone who did witness it or is affected by the incident,” he said.
He said the Department of Fisheries had advised him it was unusual for a shark to be so far down the river, which flows through Perth into the Indian Ocean.
“I’ve spoken to fisheries and water police and unfortunately we have no idea what type of shark it is,” Robinson said.
