A teenage girl has been killed in a shark attack while swimming in Western Australia.

The 16-year-old was pulled from the Swan River with severe leg injuries on Saturday.

Despite paramedics rushing to the scene, she couldn’t be saved.

Police Acting Inspector Paul Robinson said the girl had been out with friends on jet skis.

He went on: ‘There was possibly a pod of dolphins seen nearby and the young female jumped in the water to swim nearby the dolphins.

‘The family weren’t there when this took place, however, her friends were and as you can imagine this is an extremely traumatic incident for anyone to witness so obviously we’re offering counselling services to anyone who did witness it or is affected by the incident.’

He said the Department of Fisheries had advised him it was unusual for a shark to be so far down the river, which flows through Perth into the Indian Ocean.

‘I’ve spoken to fisheries and water police and unfortunately we have no idea what type of shark it is,’ Robinson said.

It is believed to be the first fatal shark attack in the Swan River since a 13-year-old boy was killed more than a century ago in January 1923.

There are typically around 20 shark attacks each year in Australia, most of which occur in WA and New South Wales.

They killed two people in 2021 and seven in 2020.

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