A woman died on Tuesday after being mauled by a shark while swimming off a popular beach on South Africa’s southeastern coast, witnesses and authorities said.
Fatal shark attacks are uncommon worldwide but South Africa has a history of deadly encounters along its long coastline.
Tuesday’s attack was at Orient Beach in KuGompo City, previously known as East London, where the municipality closed nearby beaches and urged the public to stay out of the water.
“It has been confirmed that a shark attack occurred at Orient Beach this morning, and this resulted in a tragic incident,” it said.
Police said they were called to the scene at around 7:00 a.m. (05:00 GMT), where they found the body of a 65-year-old woman with “open wounds.”
Local media reported the woman was a regular swimmer and had been swimming with a group when the attack occurred.
A local community group said other swimmers had spotted a shark’s tail and fin. “The victim sustained severe injuries to the right side of her arm and leg,” the group said in a Facebook post.
There were 65 unprovoked shark bites worldwide in 2025, up from 47 the previous year, including nine fatalities of which one was in South Africa, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
Researchers say encounters can be influenced by a range of factors, including growing coastal populations, increased use of marine waters, environmental changes and shifts in the distribution of sharks and their prey.
