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---
description: A 63-year-old swimmer was taken and killed by a shark on her daily morning swim off a popular beach close to Sydney Wednesday. It could be the second shark attack in a week
title: Australia: Woman Killed By Shark Off Country&#x27;s East Coast
image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40c355904945288e/6986889d361760921b90b42e/ap428411592679.jpg?branch=production&amp;width=1920&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
---

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40c355904945288e/6986889d361760921b90b42e/ap428411592679.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)

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# Woman Killed in Australia Shark Attack


by 

[Michelle Arrouas](/author/michelle-arrouas/)


## Michelle Arrouas


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Apr 3, 2014 7:37 AM CUT

![Australia Shark Attack](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40c355904945288e/6986889d361760921b90b42e/ap428411592679.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

A shark killed Armstrong, 63, Thursday, April 3, 2014, as she swam with a group of swimmers off a popular Australian east coast beach, police said.

A shark killed Armstrong, 63, Thursday, April 3, 2014, as she swam with a group of swimmers off a popular Australian east coast beach, police said.NSW Police—Associated Press

by 

[Michelle Arrouas](/author/michelle-arrouas/)


## Michelle Arrouas


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Apr 3, 2014 7:37 AM CUT

An Australian woman was [killed](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/shark-kills-woman-australian-east-coast "undefined") by a shark Wednesday while she was swimming off the country’s east coast, in what could be the second such attack in less than a week.

The woman, 63-year-old Christine Armstrong, was taken by the shark as she was swimming from the wharf to the popular beach of Tathra village, 210 miles (340 kilometers) south of Sydney, with a group of swimmers. Local police have deployed a helicopter and a boat to search for her remains, the Associated Press reports.

Armstrong has been swimming at the beach every morning for 14 years with a group of locals, a statement released by her family said.

“Swimming brought her much joy and many friends,” her family said. “She will be sadly missed by all who loved her, especially by Rob, her husband of 44 years.”

Also on Wednesday, the body of a 38-year-old man who had gone missing while diving with friends off Australia’s west coast on Saturday was found with shark bites in it, the _Guardian_ [reports](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/03/missing-divers-body-found-shark-bites-perth "undefined"). It was unclear whether the shark bites had caused the man’s death.

In recent decades, there have been fewer than two fatal shark attacks per year in Australia.

\[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/shark-kills-woman-australian-east-coast "undefined")\]

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