April 4, 2014
SYDNEY (AFP) - The swimming cap and goggles of a woman taken by a shark in Australia have been found along with a small amount of human remains, police said on Friday.
Christine Armstrong, 63, was with a group of people on their regular morning swim between Tathra Wharf and Tathra Beach about 350 kilometres (220 miles) south of Sydney on Thursday when she disappeared.
Her husband Rob and others in the group said they saw a shark close by.
"A cap and goggles, belonging to a woman who was taken by a shark on the state's far south coast yesterday have been located," New South Wales police said.
"The cap and goggles were found late yesterday with a quantity of organic matter.
"These remains have been identified as human and they will undergo forensic testing."
Two boats continued the search Friday, with a driver and two people in each vessel leaning over the sides with masks and snorkels to look for signs of Armstrong or the shark, the Bega District News said.
Police Inspector Jason Edmunds said Armstrong's husband of 44 years Rob was holding up well.
"Christine's husband was on the water... (He) saw the shark. He was more willing to accept what happened, or more adjusted to 'this is what's happened' than the police were," he told the newspaper.
Sharks are common in Australian waters but deadly attacks are rare, with only one of the average 15 incidents a year typically proving fatal.
The latest attack follows a presumed death in February when a man went missing while spear-fishing off the South Australia coast in the same week that a great white shark was reported in the area.
And on Wednesday the body of a diver who vanished in Western Australia at the weekend was recovered, with police saying there was evidence he had been bitten by a shark.
According to the Australian Shark Attack File based at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, the last unprovoked fatality in New South Wales, the state where Armstrong was attacked, was in 2013 at Coffs Harbour north of Sydney.
