A fisherman was attacked by a shark and presumably killed in waters off the South Australian coast Saturday afternoon, according to media reports.
The 28-year-old man, whose name as not been released, was in the water practicing spearfishing with a group of friends ahead of an upcoming competition when he was attacked and dragged away by a shark, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Witnesses saw the shark take him so it's suspected that he died from a fatal shark attack," a police spokesman told Australia's Sky News.
It was not immediately clear what type of shark attacked the man, but a great white shark was sighted in the area in the past week, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported.
Police and emergency crews conducted a search of the area where the man was dragged away until 8 p.m. local time, but they failed to recover his body. The search will resume Sunday morning, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Just under 900 shark attacks have been reported in Australia since record-keeping began in 1791, with 271 of them being fatal, according to Australian Geographic. Two shark attacks in Australia happened in 2013, one was fatal.
There are about 160 species of sharks known to inhabit Australian waters, according to Surf Life Saving Western Australia, a non-profit group dedicated to beachgoer safety. The group says three of the sharks known in Australia are considered to be a risk to human safety: the great white, the tiger shark and the bull shark.
In partnership with the Australian government, Surf Life Saving Western Australia has implemented a safety program warns beachgoers of the close proximity of sharks. Around 320 sharks tagged with GPS transmitters send a tweet detailing their species, size and location
A recent study by the University of New South Wales revealed that rip currents claim more lives in Australia each year than brushfires, floods, cyclones and shark attacks combined.