Woman killed in shark attack in South Africa

‘At this moment there seems to be more shark activities in our beaches,’ rescue authority says

A woman has been killed after being attacked by a shark off the coast of South Africa.

Authorities were alerted to reports of an incident just before 8am local time (7am BST) and launched a rescue mission at sea.

The body of a woman was found in the water off the southern coastline.

She is believed to have been 39 years old and from Cape Town, according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).

Police have opened an inquest into her death.

The shark attack was reported off Central Beach in the southern seaside town of Plettenberg Bay.

The beach, along with others in the town, were closed on Sunday following the attack.

The NSRI and the local authority urged members of the public to be cautious along the coastline running along Plettenberg Bay to Southern Cape.

“At this moment there seems to be more shark activities in our beaches. This is very unusual when compared with previous years,” the NSRI said on Sunday.

It was not the first fatal shark attack to take place in South Africa this year. Two swimmers were killed by a great white shark in April, with the body of one of them washing up on a beach in the eastern city of Durban.

The latest attack came just weeks after an American tourist was killed by a shark while snorkelling in the Bahamas. Days before, a French tourist was left in a critical condition after being attacked by a shark while swimming in Hawaii.

A 35-year-old British man was killed by a great white shark in Sydney, Australia, this year, while an Austrian and Romanian woman were killed in two separate attacks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast.