Teenage girl, 13, attacked by shark at Queensland beach

A teenage girl has been attacked by a shark at a beach near Bundaberg, suffering puncture wounds to the abdomen and buttocks.

A teenage girl has been attacked by a shark at Bargara beach in Bundaberg.

The girl, aged about 13 and believed to be a lifesaver, sustained puncture wounds to her abdomen and buttocks after swimming near Nielsen Park Beach.

The Queensland Ambulance Service was called to the beach at 4pm, with a paramedic and doctor travelling to the scene.

QAS Wide Bay operations supervisor Matthew Davenport said the patient was very lucky to sustain only minor injuries.

“They are not life threatening, there is a lot of soft tissue injury but there is no penetrating trauma to the abdomen region so she will hopefully be treated locally at the Bundaberg Hospital,” Mr Davenport said.

“She was quite calm about the situation, quite shocked, her parents arrived and were quite shocked about the incident happening, it is not known to have shark bites in the Wide Bay area.

“She was very lucky given the situation.”

Bargara local Claire Hazzard took to Facebook to share that her youngest son and his friend were surfing at Neilson Beach when the incident occurred.

“(They) brought in two girls who had been swimming out very deep and were yelling for help, because one of them had just been bitten by a shark,” Ms Hazzard said.

“They got them to shore and called the ambulance, who took the girl to hospital.

“As far as we know the girl is doing well so far.”

The teenager was transported in a stable condition to Bundaberg Hospital. A LifeFlight chopper was on standby but was not used to transport the patient.

Witness Sue Smith said the girl was “waving when she was on the stretcher, she seemed in good spirits.”