Within seconds they had torn off both the woman's arms and savagely mauled her torso and legs.Two fishermen were the first to react, dragging her out of the water onto the beach.Frantic bystanders scrambled for towels to stem the bleeding before a helicopter rushed the stricken woman to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital where she died of shock and massive blood loss, The Australian reported.
Inspector Peter Harding told media Whiley had been swimming with three friends from a church group when she was attacked.
"She went down under the water ... after about five or six seconds the deceased came out of the water and screamed `Shark' and of course people at the time thought she was only joking ... until they saw the blood.
"She was bleeding quite heavily – I'm of the opinion of what I've seen and what I've been told, there was more than one shark involved, there could have been up to three," he said.
The Australian quoted Insp Harding as saying that after Friday night's storm – the water was very murky and dirty, in fact so much so one of the locals of there wouldn't go in and dive.
He added that the woman was swimming in water "anything from chest-deep to 30 feet".
Sources:
The Australian
The Mercury
