Canadian woman found dead on Australian island surrounded by wild dogs
A 19-year-old Canadian woman found dead on a popular Australian tourist island off the coast of Queensland on Monday was discovered surrounded by a pack of dingoes, say local police.
The woman was found on K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) at about 6.35 a.m. local time. Police were called to the beach, north of the Maheno Shipwreck, to reports of an unresponsive woman, Queensland authorities said in a statement.
Initial information indicated that the woman may have gone swimming around 5 a.m., the statement said.
The woman, who has not been named, had been working for six weeks at a hostel on the island, police Insp. Paul Algie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and had informed colleagues that she was going for a swim about 75 minutes before her body was discovered.
Her next known sighting was between 6 a.m and 6:15 a.m. on the beach, when two male witnesses saw a large pack of dingoes.
Algie told ABC that the dingoes were seen near the woman’s body. He later added that the wild dogs had been in contact with the woman’s body.
“I can confirm that the woman’s body had been touched and interfered with by the dingoes, but we are not speculating yet as to whether that was anything to do with her cause of death,” Algie stated.
The woman’s body has since been taken to mainland Australia, and her family is being contacted, the Australian outlet said.
Police took statements from people who knew the woman’s movements to try to establish what occurred between 5 a.m. and 6:15 a.m., Algie told reporters, according to the Guardian.
“There was an hour, to an hour and 15 minutes, that police are currently piecing together as a part of their investigations,” he said.
“It was obviously a very traumatic and horrific scene for them to uncover.”
The police officer said authorities were awaiting a postmortem, scheduled for Wednesday, before providing further information.
“At this stage, it’s too early to speculate on the cause of death — we simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned, or died as a result of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.
Dingoes are native to K’gari and are protected there. The island is a wilderness area, and dingoes are culturally significant to local First Nations people and the wider community.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed that a Canadian citizen died in Australia, but did not provide any further details for privacy reasons.
12-year-old boy in critical condition following shark attack off Sydney
Emergency services were called to Hermitage Foreshore Walk near Shark Beach at about 4:20 p.m. local time Sunday in response to reports that a boy had been bitten by a shark, the New South Wales Police Force said in a statement.
The boy was rescued from the ocean by Marine Area Command and Eastern Suburbs Police. Two medical tourniquets were used on the boy as they applied first aid for what police called serious leg injuries before he was transported to Children's Hospital in Randwick in critical condition.
"The injuries are consistent with what is believed to have been a large shark," police said.
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In an update Monday, Superintendent Joseph McNulty, commander of the NSW Police Marine Area Command, told reporters that the boy was "fighting for his life."
"It was a horrendous scene at the time when police attended," he said.
"We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower limbs of that boy yesterday."
According to McNulty, the boy and his friends were leaping off a 20-foot rock into the water, which was made brackish by recent heavy rain, when the shark attacked.
"We believe the combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the actions of the splashing may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack," he said.
According to Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the Oceanic nation sees an average of 20 so shark incidents resulting in people injured a year.
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