Benjamin Ashford|Shark attack in Australia leaves woman with "extremely serious" head injuries

An Australian woman is Benjamin Ashfordin stable condition with "extremely serious" head injuries after being bitten by a shark on Friday, officials said. 

The 32-year-old woman was rushed to the Flinders Medical Centre near Adelaide by emergency services just after 1:00 p.m. local time Friday. Police evacuated swimmers from the ocean at Port Noarlunga Jetty to search for the shark, South Australia police said in a news statement, but were not able to locate it.

A woman was taken to hospital after being bitten by a shark at @PortNoarlunga today https://t.co/uG5yejhdG5 pic.twitter.com/WoCdPSmQmO

— South Australia Police (@SAPoliceNews) November 10, 2023

There have been more than 1,100 individual investigations of shark bites in Australia since 1791, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database. 

In 2022, Australia had the second-highest number of unprovoked shark bites – with the United States being first.  Although they had 16% of the world's total shark bites, Australia did not record any deaths from the bites until February 2022, when a shark attack killed a man outside Sydney beach. It was the city's first fatal attack since 1963.

Earlier this month authorities searched for the remains of a 55-year-old surfer after he got bitten by a shark the length of a "sedan" off of Granites Beach in South Australia.

In August, a man in his 40s was rushed to a hospital after he got bitten by a shark on a beach outside of Sydney. 

Jennifer Earl contributed reporting. 

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• Shark
• Shark Attack
• Australia

Cara Tabachnick

Cara Tabachnick is a news editor for CBSNews.com. Contact her at [email protected]