MELBOURNE, June 14 — Restrictions on drones flying over Australia's Coogee Beach will be reviewed by a regulator so rescuers in New South Wales can monitor for sharks, after an attack on Saturday left a woman critically injured in the hospital.
Emergency services were called to Coogee Beach in eastern Sydney on Saturday morning following reports that a 35-year-old woman had been bitten by a large shark about 30m from the shore.
A spokesman told Reuters that the victim was in a critical but stable condition at St Vincent's Hospital on Sunday, after she sustained serious injuries to her lower left leg and arms.
Coogee Beach and others in the city's Randwick Council area were closed for 24 hours following the attack. Drones flew overhead under emergency provisions to scan for sharks.
"It has been a really tough summer of shark activity and shark attacks in Sydney and it is something that the NSW government is taking really, really seriously," said New South Wales' agriculture minister Tara Moriarty.
She added that the government would consider new measures to keep swimmers safe from shark attacks, including the use of drones and other technologies.
Australian lifesavers use drones to help watch for sharks, but Coogee Beach has restrictions on commercial drone use because it lies under the flight path of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport.
After the attack, a Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman said in a statement that it will look at adapting the current rules.
Paddleboarder rescue
Paddleboard champion and off-duty lifeguard Charlie Verco, 25, who rescued the woman and brought her to shore, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was "very scared" when he saw the three-to-four-metre shark near a group of swimmers.
"I just looked at the beach, tried to signal to the lifeguards, a big code X, to get them to understand how it was going on out there, clear the water if they could, and get the power craft out there.
"She ended up getting taken underwater for a second. I could not see where she was because it was all red. And luckily, she popped up, and the shark had let her go, and I was able to get close enough to bring her into shore," he said.
There, they were met by lifeguards, police and medical experts, after which the woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Australia has seen a spate of shark attacks this year.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates that most shark attacks occur along the east and southeast seaboard of Australia, which averages around 20 such incidents a year.
