Italian surfer Giulia Manfrini has died after a fatal run-in with a swordfish.
The 36-year-old was surfing near the Mentawai Islands Regency in Indonesia Oct. 18 when a swordfish “unexpectedly jumped towards Manfrini and pierced her chest,” Lahmudin Siregar, the acting head of the Mentawai Islands’ Disaster Management Agency, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
She was rushed to the Pei Pei Pasakiat Taileleu Health Center but succumbed to her injuries, per the outlet.
Manfrini suffered a deep wound measuring nearly two inches and showed signs of drowning, according to medical reports obtained by the news corporation.
In a statement, Manfrini’s colleague James Colston—with whom she co-founded AWAVE Travel, a surfing and snowboarding excursion company—called the incident a “freak accident.”
“Unfortunately, even with the brave efforts of her partner, local resort staff and doctors, Giulia couldn’t be saved,” Colston he wrote in an Oct. 18 Instagram post. “We believe she died doing what she loved, in a place that she loved.”
