Australian diver feared dead after shark attack

A diver was missing and presumed dead today after he was attacked by a shark off a popular beach near the southern Australian city of Adelaide.

Two people had been diving from a boat about one mile off Glenelg Beach when a shark attacked about 4pm, said police inspector Colin Cunningham.

“One person had made it back to the boat and the other person is missing,” Cunningham said.

Another police officer, acting Superintendent Jim Jeffery, said police boats were scouring the waters for the missing diver.

But he added: “The indications to us, though, are that it will be very doubtful we will find the person alive.”

No information on the type of shark involved or the divers’ identities was immediately available.

However, Ten Network television reported it was a great white shark – the same species thought responsible for a fatal attack on an 18-year-old surfer at a beach near Glenelg in December last year.

Great white sharks, also known in Australia as white pointers, are a protected species known to inhabit cold waters off Australia’s southern coast.

The last fatal shark attack in Australian waters was reported in March, when a 20ft great white shark tore a man in half as he snorkelled off the west coast.