By 1news.co.nz and is republished with permission
A group of swimmers were asked to leave the water by lifeguards this afternoon after a shark was spotted at a popular Auckland beach.
Lifeguards blew their whistles around 3.30pm at Long Bay Beach in a warning to those in the water.
“Surf lifeguards at Long Bay Beach closed their flagged area due to a confirmed shark sighting, spotted by a member of the public,” Zac Franich, general manager Surf Life Saving Northern Region told 1News.
“Surf lifeguards monitored the beach and re-opened the flagged area approximately 30 minutes later, when the area was deemed safe.”
The species of shark “was not confirmed.”
The NZ Herald reported there were 50 to 80 people at the beach at the time.
It comes after a woman was bitten by a shark in Southland earlier this week.
The woman, 21, received a “significant laceration” to her leg after walking in knee-deep water in a Riverton estuary in the early hours of Monday morning.
It’s thought the shark involved in that attack was a sevengill.
