A teenage girl has died on a popular Queensland beach after she was mauled by a shark while enjoying an afternoon swim north of Brisbane.
The girl, aged 17, reportedly received catastrophic injuries to her upper body during the attack at Woorim Beach on Bribie Island.
The beach is a 90-minute drive from Brisbane and is a popular destination for a day trip.
The Courier Mail named the victim as Charlize Zmuda.
She was believed to be with several friends when the incident occurred about 4.45pm on Monday.
Charlize – a captain of the Bribie Island Surf Life Saving Club in 2024 – was reportedly swimming about 100 metres into the surf, about 500 metres from the flagged zone on the busy beach.
The Queensland Ambulance Service said the teen sustained life-threatening injuries to her upper body.
Queensland Police confirmed the young woman died soon after 5pm and a report was being prepared for the coroner.
It was the third shark attack in three months in Queensland.
Nationally, in the past decade, there has been an average of 20 shark attacks where people have been injured, according to the Australian Shark-Incident Database.
The Courier Mail reports that hours after the tragedy, family and friends began gathering at the beach.
A couple believed to be Charlize’s parents sat on the sand while friends gathered with cartons of beer to honour the girl.
John Wadley was swimming at Woorim Beach with his 11-year-old son around the time of the attack. He said sharks were seen daily.
“There are shark sightings every day, people don’t say anything — it’s common, you know,” he said.
“They’ll talk more about dolphins, seeing dolphins in the water, but [not] sharks.”
Wadley said he had just got out of the water when he heard sirens down the beach and thought someone had drowned.
“I mean, we were just swimming, like what, five minutes beforehand,” he said.
“We just come up and we heard the sirens and we ran back down and I was like, ‘We literally just got out of the water’.
“It might have happened while we were still in the water… because by the time we heard all the sirens it was like 10 to 15 minutes after it happened.”