SYDNEY: A shark killed a 16-year-old girl on Saturday after she apparently jumped into a river in Western Australia to swim near a pod of dolphins, officials said.

The girl was bitten by an unknown species of shark during an outing with friends on the Swan River in the Perth suburb of North Fremantle, state government and police officials said.

She was pulled from the water but died from her injuries at the scene after efforts to revive her failed, said Paul Robinson, acting police inspector for the Fremantle district.

“It’s very early on, what we’re being advised is that she was with friends on the river,” he told a news conference. “They were on jet skis. Possibly a pod of dolphins were being seen nearby and the young female jumped in to swim nearby the dolphins.” Describing it as a “very, very traumatic incident,” Robinson said the family of the girl, who was from Perth, was “absolutely devastated by the news”.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2023