Shark kills man in Australian lake

A shark attacked and killed an 84-year-old swimmer in a lake near Australia’s east coast today, police said.

Burleigh Lake on Australia’s Gold Coast is linked to the nearby Pacific Ocean by a series of canals that are known to have sharks.

Kayakers found the man’s body about three hours after he went missing while on his regular early morning swim in the salt-water lake, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. There were bite marks on his legs.

Queensland state’s Primary Industries Minister Henry Palaszczuk said the shark was a bull whaler.

“The canals have hundreds of these sharks in them,” Palaszczuk said. “The method of attack is a single attack – they disable the person or the animal and they come back at a later time to finish off their prey.

“They are the most dangerous shark out there. The message is loud and clear to the people who live along those canals – don’t swim in the canals, keep out of the water.”

In December, a shark attacked and killed a 23-year-old man in a nearby lake. The shark was never found, however the two lakes are not connected by waterways.

The Gold Coast is a popular destination for foreign tourists and is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Queensland state capital Brisbane.