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 am, where they found the woman's body, Eastern Cape police spokesperson Colonel 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 the Orient and nearby Eastern beaches until further notice. It also issued warnings for all other local beaches and urged beachgoers to follow safety advisories and instructions from authorities.
South Africa is known for its great white sharks and shark tourism, but shark attacks are rare.
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.