A shark attack at Sorrento Beach in Western Australia left a man dead and horrified witnesses, highlighting a surge in deadly shark incidents across the country
Police stand on Sorrento Beach, in Perth, Australia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, after a suspected fatal (Image: Andrew O’Connor/Australian Broad)
A fatal shark attack off a beach in Western Australia on Friday left beachgoers watching on in horror as a swimmer lost his life.
According to a police statement, the swimmer died from the late-morning attack off Sorrento Beach, located in the northern suburbs of Perth. Following the incident, air and sea search teams, using helicopters and boats, swept the area. Officials have yet to comment on whether any human remains had been recovered.
Following the horrific incident, officials closed the beach to the public. While police have not officially released the victim’s identity, eyewitnesses indicated that he was a man in his 60s.
Perth, Australia (Image: Getty)
A witness to the attack, Darrel Haythornthwaite, told Nine Network television that the victim had been swimming with a now traumatized friend.
“I was just shocked. I mean, I feel for his mate. He’s apologized and said ‘I didn’t save my mate,’” Haythornthwaite told Nine. “I said, ‘You couldn’t have done anything.’”
Witnesses were horrified to see so much blood in the water.
“My friend said, ‘Jac, I think there’s been a shark attack,’ and I looked out to the ocean, and I could see a pool of blood,” beach walker Jacqui Rapaic told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Another witness, Ingrid Mitchell, swims at the beach every day. She told Nine, “How do you just watch someone be mauled to pieces in front of you, basically? It’s pretty hard.”
Witnesses reported seeing a disturbing amount of blood in the water.
A local named Ryan Rowe told The West Australian newspaper that he arrived at the beach that morning and was told by another witness that “someone had been bitten by a shark.”
“I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body,” Rowe said.
There have been five deadly shark attacks in Australia just this year.
According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a collaborative effort between Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University, and the New South Wales state government, Australia has typically recorded an average of two to three fatal shark incidents annually since 2000.
However, recent months have seen a tragic surge in attacks. Over a four-week span in May and June, three spearfishing divers lost their lives in shark encounters along the Australian coastline. Earlier in the year, a 12-year-old boy passed away in the hospital several days after being mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor in January.
In June, a woman was mauled by a shark at one of Australia’s most popular beaches in Sydney. The schoolteacher recalled throwing a “left hook” at the shark before it pulled her underwater.
Just this week, a surfer suffered severe leg injuries following an attack near Geraldton, about 250 miles north of Perth.