Woman seriously injured in shark attack at Sydney beach

A woman has been seriously injured after being bitten by a shark at a beach in Sydney, police have said.

New South Wales Police said emergency services were called to Coogee Beach in the east of the city on Saturday morning.

The woman, 35, was “pulled from the water by members of the public who commenced first aid”, police said, and suffered “serious arm and leg injuries”.

She was then airlifted to hospital by helicopter. Several beaches in the area were closed as a precaution.

Attack eyewitness Nicola Logan told Reuters news agency that she saw a “massive pool of blood” in the water, then “a lady kind of motioning to swim, lots of splashing, and then a ski paddler was out trying to bring her in”.

It comes after a male diver died last week after being bitten by a suspected 4.5m (14.8ft) shark south-east of Perth, Western Australia.

Shark attacks around Australia are more common than in many other parts of the world, though they are often not fatal.

Since records began in 1791, there have been almost 1,300 recorded shark attacks in Australia, with more than 260 of them resulting in death.

Popular swimming and surfing spots in Australia tend to have measures to protect against shark attacks.