INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A swimmer in Australia has died after apparently being stung by a stingray, police have said.The 42-year-old man was swimming close to
Lauderdale Beach in the southern island state of Tasmania when he suffered "a puncture wound to his lower abdomen", police said.Friends
pulled him from the water but attempts to resuscitate the man, who suffered a cardiac arrest, were unsuccessful.Police said the attack was
"consistent with (a stingray injury) but further investigation and examination of the deceased may be able to give a bit more of a concrete
fact on that"."It's a pretty traumatic incident to see," they added.Image:Steve Irwin died in 2006 after a stingray barb punctured his
chestCommonly found in tropical waters, stingrays are a flattish, diamond-shaped fish that rarely attack humans but their barbs, at the end
of their tails, are coated in toxic venom which they use to defend themselves when threatened.Most injuries from stingrays result from
people stepping on them in shallow water and getting a barb in the ankle, experts say.In 2006, Australian conservationist and "Crocodile
Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed when a stingray barb punctured his chest while he was filming on the famed Great Barrier Reef.
