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CHILDREN were among the terrified witnesses to a vicious shark attack that left one woman fighting for her life.
Bridgette O’Shannessy was brutally attacked on the face and head in the waters just off a beach in Adelaide, Australia on Friday.
The 32-year-old victim had been swimming in the afternoon near a reef with her partner when the shark attacked, according to first responders.
Children attending a field trip were swimming nearby and ran up the beach in panic after seeing the water turn red with the woman’s blood, according to eyewitness accounts in Newsweek.
“A few of the people said she was getty jumping, and it happened just to the right of the jetty, in between the reef and the shore, which is pretty rare,” beachgoer Eric Tink told ABC News Australia.
“Everyone panicked and got out of the water.”
“We were on our way into the water and then one of the girls from the club came down and said, ‘Can you get out?'” another beachgoer named Charlieze Nalzare told local reporters.
O’Shannessy was quickly taken from the water by a rescue boat and given first aid before being driven to the hospital.
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Witnesses said she left a trail of blood behind on the sand from her wounds.
At the hospital, doctors had to treat O’Shannessy for serious head wounds and remove some of the shark’s teeth that were still wedged in her skull.
Although first responders initially said that O’Shannessy’s condition was life-threatening, they have since said she is in serious but stable condition.
Wildlife experts were not able to immediately find the shark involved in the attack, but some have said they expect a great white could be the culprit.
Australian seas are home to several species of sharks, including the three that are typically most dangerous for humans: Great white sharks, bull sharks, and tiger sharks.
The attack shocked swimmers coming just two weeks after another man was attacked and presumably killed by a shark in Streaky Bay, on South Australia’s west coast.
Although the two locations are hundreds of miles apart, any news of shark attacks along the coast can make even long-time swimmers antsy about getting in the water.
“The shark attack that we saw yesterday was really unique in its nastiness,” regional politician Premier Peter Malinauskas said about the attack, according to ABC News Australia.
But he tried to assure his constituents that the two shark attacks were nothing to be concerned about and that officials were amping up their policing of the waters over the summer.
“The usual shark patrols that the state government funds commence at the beginning of December, but this is something we’re going to monitor quite closely, just to satisfy ourselves through the science that this isn’t something that starts to become more regular from here on in,” he said.
