‘Generous, devoted’ father mauled to death by shark at Perth beach remembered
A community is greiving after a Perth man was mauled to death by a shark infront of dozens of helpless beachgoers on Friday.
Greg O’Neill, 63, was swimming just 15m offshore at Sorrento Beach with a friend when he was killed about 10.30am.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Family shares tribute for beloved swimmer killed by shark.
Floral tributes have been placed on the now-closed beach where O’Neill’s family mourned alongside members of the community.
“Our family is deeply shocked and devastated by the terrible tragedy that took the life of father, grandfather-to-be, brother, uncle, husband and friend,” O’Neill’s family said in a statement.
“He was a generous, devoted family man that gave his children so much love, care and opportunity. Greg loved the ocean and was known as a passionate swimmer, sports lover, dedicated worker and an all round witty guy.
“The kind thoughts and support from everyone who has reached out are deeply appreciated.”
Community members on the beach were deeply impacted by the incident, and expressed their sadness to 7NEWS.
“Our thoughts are definitely with them. The whole Sorrento community is absolutely thinking of them,” one local woman said.
“I just wanted to come down and pay my respects. I don’t know the guy, but I wanted to bring some flowers down,” one local man said.
Another local, Ingrid Michell, told 7NEWS she was having a coffee nearby when the shark alarm went off — the local nurse rushed to the beach in case she could help, but there was nothing she could do.
She told 7NEWS that her work means she is exposed to “a lot of gruesome stuff”, but said that witnessing the shark attack was especially “hard to cop”.
“The mate was putting his arms up to wave that he could see a shark. The shark took his friend from 15m offshore, dragged him at a rate of knots out in front of that bouy there, and just mauled him in front of us,” Michell said.
Authorities are also searching for great white shark, after a rare kill order was issued.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on 7news.com.au — the content belongs to 7NEWS Australia.
