Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack
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Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

A woman has survived a great white shark attack on Australia´s east coast after her surfing companion repeatedly punched it until it let her go.

Paramedics were called to Shelly Beach at Port Macquarie, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Sydney, on Saturday morning after the 35-year-old woman was attacked while surfing.

She was taken to a local hospital with serious leg injuries, but has since been flown to a nearby bigger hospital where she will undergo surgery.

New South Wales state police said the woman and a man were surfing when she was bitten on the right calf and the back of her thigh. Her companion then punched the estimated 3-meter (10-foot) shark until it let her go.

"We´ve had some really serious and tragic shark encounters over the past couple of months along the coastline, so to paddle out of your own safety zone, into an area where you know there is a large shark, I think is amazing ... a tremendous act of bravery," state Surf Life Saving chief executive Steven Pearce said.

Beaches in Port Macquarie have been closed for 24 hours as authorities attempt to track the shark.

There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in 2020, higher than the country´s average of three deadly attacks a year.



The Largest Digital Camera Ever Built Has Released its 1st Glamour Shots of the Universe

This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows another small section of the observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. (NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory via AP)
This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows another small section of the observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. (NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory via AP)
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The Largest Digital Camera Ever Built Has Released its 1st Glamour Shots of the Universe

This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows another small section of the observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. (NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory via AP)
This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows another small section of the observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. (NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory via AP)

The largest digital camera ever built released its first glamour shots of the universe Monday — including colorful nebulas, stars and galaxies.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the US National Science Foundation and US Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years, The AP news reported.

The observatory's first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster were also captured, including two bright blue spirals.

The observatory hopes to image 20 billion galaxies and discover new asteroids and other celestial objects.

The effort is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious force called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the observatory's discerning camera may yield clues about this elusive entity along with another called dark energy.