A 13-year-old boy is in a critical condition in a Sydney hospital after a shark attack at a popular beach in the city’s east.

Emergency services were called to the Hermitage Foreshore walk at Vaucluse about 4.20pm on Sunday.

The boy’s friends jumped into the water to pull him to safety after the attack off Shark Beach.

NSW Police and Marine Area Command officers were also on the scene “within minutes” of a call to triple zero, police said.

“He had been bitten by a large shark … the actions of his mates who have gone into the water to pull him out have been nothing but brave,” NSW Police marine area command commander Superintendent Joseph Mcnulty said on Monday.

He said police from the eastern suburbs met Water Police officers at the Vaucluse Point rock face.

“They applied first aid. The tourniquets were applied. They stemmed the bleeding … at the time before putting that young boy up on to the bow of that police boat,” he said.

“As that police boat drove off at high-speed, they were still doing CPR on the boat hanging on, but keeping that boy alive at the time.

“That boat had high-speed run across the bay into Rose Bay wharf
where there was a waiting ambulance and paramedic team there for him.”

The teenager was taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital in a critical condition.

Police said his injuries were cnsistent with what is believed to have been “a large shark”.

“The harbour, as you know, and you can see, is brackish, full of fresh water, from the amount of rain we had over the weekend – a lot of rainfall and a lot of fresh water,” Mcnulty said.

“The boys were jumping off a six-metre rock that’s popular in the Vaucluse area, into that brackish water. We have to believe the combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the actions of the splashing, may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack.”

The incident happened near Nielsen Park and Shark Beach, a popular netted swimming spot for families in Sydney Harbour.

Footage from the scene showed the boy being treated by paramedics in a police rescue tent with multiple ambulances nearby.

The beach was closed and swimmers advised not to go in the water.

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development was working to identify the species of shark involved in the attack.

“This is a tragic shark attack on a young boy having a swim on a Sunday afternoon in a harbour beach in Sydney’s east,” Moriarty said.

“Our thoughts are with the young boy and his family.

“I understand there were also a lot of young people on the beach at the time of the attack. Our thoughts are also with them.”

A young woman was bitten on the leg by a shark at nearby Elizabeth Bay in early 2024. Photo: AAP

Multiple swimmers have been attacked by sharks in Sydney Harbour in recent years, including a young woman who was bitten on the leg at Elizabeth Bay in early 2024.

A 57-year-old surfer died when he was attacked by a shark while swimming at Long Reef Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches in September.

A Swiss tourist was killed by a shark two months ago while swimming at a remote beach on the NSW mid-north coast.

The woman, aged in her 20s, was attacked at Kylies Beach in the Crowdy Bay National Park in November.

Meanwhile, a search will resume on Monday for a man last seen falling from a cliff into the water on the NSW south coast about 6.40pm Sunday.

Officers called to Mystery Bay Beach, about 12 kilometres south of Narooma, were told “a man – aged 23 – had fallen several metres off a cliff into the ocean and had not resurfaced.