A shark fatally mauled a man in his 50s at a beach near Sydney, Australia, and area beaches were closed on Saturday as drones searched for the predator, authorities said. Emergency crews were dispatched to Long Reef Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches shortly after 10am local time Saturday, responding to reports that a man had suffered critical injuries. The man, who had been surfing with friends, was retrieved from the water and brought to shore but died at the scene, the AP reports. Two sections of a surfboard were recovered and taken for examination. Police identified the victim as 57-year-old Mercury Psillakis, a well-known member of the local surfing community, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Psillakis, who has a wife and young daughter, lost both legs in the attack, police said. "It's a terrible, terrible thing. It's one of those freak accidents that happens very, very rarely," Police Inspector Stuart Thomson said. Witnesses say that he was brought ashore by two fellow surfers and that distraught family members rushed to the scene. One witness says they saw a "massive white" up to 20 feet long. The shark "is obviously huge, given it just removed two legs pretty well clean and his left hand," the witness says.
"I'm lost for words. He was the guy I would hang with and surf with him in Sydney, he glassed my boards and taught me a lot about surfboards and more importantly just how to be a good person in and out of the water," fellow surfer Tim Smith tells the Herald. The attack is thought to be the first in the state of New South Wales this year. The last time a person was killed by a shark in Sydney was in February 2022. That was the city's first fatal shark attack since 1963.
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