June 13, 2026 / 8:49 AM EDT
/ CBS/AP
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An Australian lifeguard helped rescue a woman who was critically injured by a white shark while swimming off a popular Sydney beach on Saturday. The 35-year-old woman, who has not been identified, suffered serious leg and arm injuries in the morning attack at Coogee Beach, according to a police statement. She was swimming with two friends about 100 feet from shore when she was attacked, ambulance official Michael Corlis said. Lifeguard Tony Waller said the shark was about 11 feet long. Lifeguard Charlie Verco told Sydney newspaper The Sunday Telegraph that he was on his paddleboard when he saw the shark emerge. "I saw the shark come out of the water and just the size of it shocked me," Verco told the paper. "I kept paddling towards her and the shark took her underwater and I was going, 'What do I do now?' A couple of seconds later, she popped up again." Ian Ferguson, an off-duty hospital doctor who was at the beach with his family, said there was a "big cloud of blood in the water."
People sit on stairs at Coogee beach following a shark attack in Sydney, Saturday, June 13, 2026.
