A teenage spearfisher was fatally attacked by a shark Monday on the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern Australian tourist town of Port Douglas.
Daniel Smith, 18, was travelling on a private boat with friends when an approaching shark bit his leg and arm, reported ABC Australia. His friends performed emergency first aid in attempts to save him on their way back to shore.
Cairns Queensland Ambulance spokesman Greg Thiedecke told ABC Australia it was about a two-hour trip by boat back to shore from the location the friends were fishing.
"A lot of large blood vessels [are] in the groin area, so for him to go into cardiac arrest that quickly it would be blood loss," Thiedecke said of Smith, who was pronounced dead upon his arrival to shore.
"When they arrived, the people [on the boat] were still doing CPR on him, trying to save him," said Thiedecke. "We did have Mossman hospital on stand-by with a doctor ... but unfortunately when we arrived, he was well and truly passed. We did have a car waiting at Port Douglas for when he arrived and it was the paramedics in the Port Douglas unit [who assessed him]."
It's unclear what type of shark was involved in the attack.
The shark attack occurred almost a decade to the day after another fatal shark attack at nearby Opal Reef, according to reports.
