Tributes have been paid to an Italian surfer after she was stabbed in the chest by a swordfish and died off the western coast of Indonesia.
Giulia Manfrini, 36, was surfing when she was struck by a fish with a long, pointed bill in the Mentawai islands off the coast of Sumatra Island last week.
“She was surfing on the waters off Masokut Island. A swordfish suddenly jumped and struck her in the chest,” Mentawai disaster mitigation agency’s acting head Lahmudin Siregar said on Tuesday. “They brought her to the nearest health clinic, but as soon as they arrived, she did not make it.”
Photo grab from Instagram/ Giulia Manfrini
Lahmudin told Indonesian state news agency Antara that the swordfish had caused a 5cm deep wound.
The resort where she had been staying said she loved surfing in the region.
“She was hit in the chest by a needlefish and died almost immediately,” Hidden Bay Resort Mentawais said in an Instagram statement on Monday. “We do know, however, that she continued to do what she loved best and without suffering. May you follow your path of light and may you surf the eternal waves on the other side.”
James Colston, the cofounder of Manfrini’s travel agency AWAVE Travel, said in a statement on Sunday that she “died doing what she loved, in a place that she loved” in what he called a “freak accident.”
Last year, US professional surfer Mikala Jones died aged 44 after a surfing accident in the same region of Indonesia.
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