Canberra/ Australia: Three sailors had a narrow escape when sharks attacked the boat they were traveling off Australia’s northestern coast on Wednesday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority( AMSA) arrived on the scene after receiving emergency beacon at about 1:30 am, CNN reported.
Two Russians and one French national, ages 28 to 63, were onboard an inflatable catamaran when the sharks attacked them.
Rescuers found both hulls of the travellers’ 9-meter boat damaged in the attack.
Photos and video from rescue operation showed the boat nearly submerged with a portion of front section completely missing.
A huge Panama-registered 650-foot Dugong Ace carried out the rescue operation, according to the report.
The three men were unharmed in the attack, said a spokesperson.
‘Now [the] travelers are safe, this is the most important thing. Unfortunately, the catamaran could not be saved. The fate of the expedition will be clear next week,’ the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
One of the sailor onboard the boat, Stanislav Beryozkin said the sharks may have mistaken the boat for whale.
Joe Zeller, the acting manager of the AMSA Response Centre, said the reasons behind the shark attack were unclear.
‘'The emergency beacon absolutely saved their lives. It enabled the rescue coordination center to identify their precise location and empower the most appropriate and quickest response to rescue them,’Zeller was quoted as saying.