Television reptile hunter Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray while filming a nature documentary off Queensland, Australia.
According to a report from Australia's The Daily Telegraph, Irwin was struck by the barb of a stingray while swimming off the Low Isles, near Port Douglas, Queensland.
An emergency air ambulance flew to Batt Reef at 11am and paramedics arrived at the scene by boat. The venomous barb of the ray is said to have entered the left side of his chest. Irwin was pronounced dead at the scene.
Wildlife film maker David Ireland told The Daily Telegraph: "Working with (wild animals) the way the way we do things can go very wrong. Rays are very dangerous. They have one or two barbs in the tails which are not only coated in toxic material but are also like a bayonet, like a bayonet on a rifle. If it hits any vital organs it's as deadly as a bayonet."
Dr Ed O'Loughlin was on the Emergency Management Queensland Helicopter which was called to the incident.
He told the paper: "It would be highly unusual for a stingray to cause this type of injury. It became clear fairly soon that he had non-survivable injuries. He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest. He had lost his pulse and wasn't breathing."
Irwin, who was 44, rose to fame on the television series "The Crocodile Hunter". He was heavily involved in conservation and worked for the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, and the International Crocodile Rescue.
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