Shark attack kills woman off South Africa coast, beaches closed

A 65-year-old woman was killed on Tuesday in a shark attack off South Africa ’s southeastern coast, police and municipal authorities said, prompting the closure of two beaches.

Officers were called to Orient Beach in KuGompo city, formerly East London, at about 7 a.m., where they found the woman’s body, Eastern Cape police spokesperson Col. Siphokazi Mawisa told The Associated Press. An inquest has been opened into the death.

“The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality is deeply saddened to confirm that a fatal shark attack occurred at the Orient Beach this morning, resulting in the tragic loss of a swimmer,” municipal spokesman Luzuko Buku said in a statement.

Fellow swimmer Mike Loewe told state broadcaster SABC that members of an open-water swimming group responded to the woman’s distress signal and brought her ashore. A medic in the group tried to save her, but she was declared dead at the scene, he said.

“She liked to swim solo,” Loewe said. “She was courageous.”

He described the victim as a recently retired nuclear radiographer and a musician, and said her death had devastated the swimming community.

The municipality has closed Orient Beach and nearby Eastern Beach until further notice. They will reopen only after safety assessments and expert advice. It also urged beachgoers to swim only in designated areas while lifeguards are on duty, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

South Africa is known for its great white sharks and shark tourism, but shark attacks are rare.

According to municipal records, the city’s last fatal shark attack was in 1997, and its most recent reported attack occurred in 2023.

The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File recorded 29 unprovoked bites in the country between 2012 and 2021, an average of about three a year. Six were fatal.