Missing surfer in Australia is believed dead in shark attack, police say

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A surfer missing in Australia is believed to have died in a shark attack, authorities said Friday, as they searched the waters where the man disappeared.

The 28-year-old was in the sea at a popular surf beach in South Australia where another man was killed by a white shark in 2023.

A witness who saw the shark attack on Thursday evening at Granites Beach, near the coastal town of Streaky Bay, rode into the sea on a jet ski and retrieved the man’s surfboard, Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“But there was just no sign of this young man, there’s just been no sign of him,” Stokes told the ABC. “From witnesses’ descriptions we’re pretty confident that sadly he’s been killed by this shark.”

The beach was known to be frequented by sharks, Stokes said. She did not specify what species of shark was believed to be involved.

Emergency responders and volunteers were searching offshore on Friday for the local man and the beach was closed to the public. Police were preparing a coroner’s report, a statement said.

Shark attacks in Australia are rare, with 255 fatal bites recorded since 1791 in the country of 27 million people, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.

But the state of South Australia has registered more episodes in the past two years than usual. There were five shark attacks of the state’s coast in 2023, three of them fatal and one at the same beach as Thursday’s incident.

Scientists at the time said they did not know the reason for the cluster. There was one non-fatal shark bite off South Australia’s coast in 2024.