A 3m shark threatened a children's sailing regatta in southern Australia, biting a hole in an inflatable patrol boat that tried to drive it away, event organizers said.
The shark was spotted swimming in shallow waters where 117 children aged eight to 13 were competing in a regatta in Port Phillip Bay near Melbourne in Victoria state.
Event organizer Brian Smith said a fleet of inflatable dinghies normally used to ensure safety at the regatta sped toward the shark and attempted to steer it away from the children.
"It didn't like being herded away and it came upon one of the patrol boats and bit it," he said.
"I think it was a defensive thing," he said.
None of the five people on board the patrol boat was injured in Friday's incident.
"The people on the boat were probably pretty alarmed but no one was injured," Smith said. "We did not lose any of the boats and all the kids were OK."
The shark later swam away from the race and into deeper waters.
The incident comes after a rash of shark attacks. Last month, a great white shark killed an 18-year-old surfer while his friends watched in horror in South Australia state, just 250m from a crowded beach.
Just days earlier, a 38-year-old man was killed by a shark while spearing fish on the Great Barrier Reef off northeast Australia. And in July last year, two sharks attacked a 29-year-old surfer off the Australian west coast.
Smith said it was rare for sharks to be spotted in that area of the bay.
"I've spoken to a number of guys who have been sailing in the area for 30-plus years and they say in that entire time they've experienced one or two sharks," he said. "It's not something you necessarily expect to see."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not