Queensland Ambulance Service has confirmed a man died after being attacked by a shark. Photo / News Corp Australia
Queensland Ambulance Service has confirmed a man died after being attacked by a shark. Photo / News Corp Australia
A surfer has died after being attacked by a shark at Coolangatta on Queensland's Gold Coast, with one witness saying he "saw the shark swim under him".
A spokeswoman for Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics were called to Greenmount Beach at 5.08pm today with reports an adult male had sufferedsignificant shark bite injuries.
"He had succumbed to the injuries," the spokeswoman told NCA NewsWire.
Video footage shows the man being transported in a beach buggie.
"The guy who was surfing nearby said it was just so quick," a lifeguard told 10 News.
"It just goes to show how vulnerable you are when you're surfing."
In a chilling witness account, a surfer who was in the water at the time can be heard saying he "saw the shark swim under him" in a video posted to Instagram.
Elsewhere a man said he was walking on the footpath at the beach when he saw a surfboard floating "and a body was next to it".
"I just presumed he might have got knocked out because he wasn't moving in the water," the man told 7 News.
Several people helped drag the victim, who the witness described as being in his 50s, onto the beach.
"We got him onto the sand. There was a lifeguard 4WD there already ... and they had a stretcher. We put him on the stretcher but he was pretty much gone by then.
"There wasn't any blood.
"From the groin to his knee, there was nothing there. It was just like hanging there but not much."
A man has died in the first fatal shark attack on the GC in more than 60 years. 7NEWS spoke with one of the men who tried to bring him into shore. “I ran down to the beach, dropped by board, sort of trudged through the line-up to get to him.” https://t.co/DGEFxQcf41#7NEWSpic.twitter.com/2DEI9URIr6
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has declared beaches will be shut from the NSW border to Burleigh tomorrow, with lifeguards patrolling the waters on jet skis while a helicopter will monitor from the air.
It is believed to be the first shark attack at a netted Gold Coast beach since a 20-year-old surfer suffered non-fatal injuries at Nobbys Beach in 2012.
Greenmount Beach, near the New South Wales border, is netted, but does not cover surface to bottom.
It's about 20km from South Kingscliff in northern NSW, where a 60-year-old surfer died after being mauled by a three-metre white shark in June.
