SYDNEY: A shark mauled a woman swimmer in the first attack in Sydney Harbour in 15 years, officials said on Tuesday, sending her to hospital with a “serious” leg injury.

The predator struck as the woman swam off a wharf at Elizabeth Bay, less than two kilometres from Sydney Opera House, police said. The woman suffered a “serious injury to her right leg”, New South Wales police said in a statement.

It was the first shark attack in Sydney Harbour since February 2009, when an Australian navy diver fought off a bull shark that bit him in the arm and leg in Woolloomooloo Bay.

Neighbours rushed to help the Elizabeth Bay victim, identified by the Sydney Morning Herald as 29-year-old Lauren O’Neill, a keen kayaker. “I got home from work and sat down on the couch. I heard a soft yell for help just outside the window,” nearby resident Michael Porter told reporters.

Outside, he saw the woman trying to climb a ladder out of the harbour’s waters. “Behind her was her leg, which was limp and all completely open and full of dark red blood behind her,” Porter said. “She had obviously been mauled extremely badly by whatever shark it was that got her,” he said.

“We have always worried and known about sharks in the harbour,” he added. “It’s only now that it feels very real.”

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024