A 12-year-old boy remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit after being attacked by a shark this Sunday on a beach in Sydney Harbor, east of the Australian city, police sources confirmed this Monday.
The attack occurred around 4:20 p.m. local time on Sunday (6:20 a.m. in Spain) in the Vaucluse area, when the minor was with a group of friends jumping from a rock ledge about six meters high at shallow and murky waters.
According to the New South Wales Police, where Sydney is located, the quick reaction of the boy’s friends was key to saving his life, as they jumped into the water to help him before the arrival of the rescue teams.
Subsequently, maritime police officers managed to remove him from the water and placed him tourniquets on both legs to stop the bleeding.
“The 12-year-old boy was rescued from the water off Shark Beach by officers from Marine Area Command and Eastern Suburbs Police within minutes of the 000 call being made,” the police said in a statement.
The minor was transferred to Sydney Children’s Hospital, where he remains in intensive care with serious injuries to the lower extremities.
The authorities indicated that, preliminarily, the attack would have been provoked by a bull sharka common species in Sydney Harbour. The intense rains recorded over the weekend, which caused the mixing of fresh and salt water, could have favored the presence of the animal in the area.
The bull shark is one of the best-known species in Australian waters due to its size, strength and its ability to inhabit both salty and fresh waters, which allows them to enter estuaries and coastal areas with a large movement of bathers and fishermen.
These sharks (zoological term for sharks) can measure more than three meters and are among those responsible for many of the encounters between sharks and humans on the east coast of Australia, including Sydney Harbour, where they are attracted by schools of fish and murky water conditions following heavy rain.
In 2025, at least a dozen shark attacks were recorded in the country, including one on a 9-year-old boy who managed to survive, and of which five were fatal.
According to a national database of incidents, From 1791 to 2025, more than 1,280 attacks have been recorded of shark in Australia, of which approximately 260 have been fatal.