Local support grows following beach incident involving 12-year-old in Sydney

Twelve-year-old Nico Antic who was attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour final week has died, his household shared.

“We’re heartbroken to share that our son, Nico has handed away,” his dad and mom Lorena and Juan mentioned in a press release.

The teenage boy and a bunch of mates had been leaping off a rock ledge when he was attacked by what authorities consider to be a bull shark.

“Nico was a cheerful, pleasant, and sporty younger boy with probably the most type and beneficiant spirit. He was all the time lively and that’s how we’ll keep in mind him,” the assertion by the grieving household learn.

“We want to sincerely thank the primary responders and the groups at Sydney Kids’s Hospital, Randwick for every thing they did to take care of Nico.

“We’d additionally prefer to thank everybody locally for his or her assist and sort messages.”

Nico Antic/ GoFundMe

By Saturday afternoon, a GoFundMe marketing campaign for his household had raised near $240,000, with messages of assist together with one from Kate Barley, the mom of Khai Cowley, the 15-year-old who was killed by a shark in 2023.

“From one mum to a different, my coronary heart is holding you so tightly,” Barley’s remark learn.

“I misplaced my lovely boy Khai in a shark assault in South Australia — he was solely 15 — and I understand how insufferable this ready and concern will be. Your valuable boy is in our ideas and prayers, and your loved ones is being held with deep love and power proper now.”

Nico’s mates had been praised for his or her fast and courageous actions after dashing to assist him following the assault. Police mentioned no less than one in every of them jumped into the water to drag him to security, whereas others stayed with him and supplied assist till paramedics arrived.

He was taken to Sydney Kids’s Hospital in vital situation on January 18, the place he underwent surgical procedure and was positioned in an induced coma on account of severe leg accidents.

Nico Antic/ Equipped

There was a sudden enhance in shark incidents alongside Australia’s east coast in current days, together with a number of in Sydney. One surfer escaped with out harm, whereas one other suffered severe accidents, and a day later a 39-year-old man was bitten on the New South Wales mid-north coast and brought to hospital.

Specialists consider the rise is probably going linked to heavy rain, which made the water murky and attracted bull sharks nearer to shore.

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