MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man was killed by a shark as he swam off a Western Australian city beach Friday, police said.
Search boats and helicopters extensively searched the ocean off Sorrento Beach in Perth's northern suburbs after the late morning attack without finding any trace of the victim, a police statement said.
But police were confident the “swimmer died as a result of the attack,” the statement said.
Witnesses reported seeing blood in the water.
“My friend said, ‘Jac, I think there’s been a shark attack,’ and I looked out to the ocean and I could see a pool of blood,” beach walker Jacqui Rapaic told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Local Ryan Rowe reached the beach soon afterward and said he was was told by an onlooker “someone had been bitten by a shark.”
“I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body,” Rowe told The West Australian newspaper.
Authorities closed the beach to swimmers. The witnesses had identified the swimmer as a man and police did not identify him further.
A surfer sustained a serious leg wound in a shark attack Monday near Geraldton, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Perth.
There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year.
Three spearfishing divers were killed by sharks off the Australian coast in four weeks over May and June. In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.
Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership of the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales state government.
Police stand on Sorrento Beach, in Perth, Australia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, after a suspected fatal shark attack. (Andrew O'Connor/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
A police boat and and helicopter patrol the area at Sorrento Beach, in Perth, Australia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, after a suspected fatal shark attack. (Andrew O'Connor/Australian Broadcasting Corp via AP)
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s central bank on Friday raised the benchmark interest rate to 1.25% from 1.0%, a 31-year-high.
The Bank of Japan has been trying to normalize monetary policy after decades of keeping interest rates near or below zero to try to encourage more borrowing and spending to counter deflation and pull Japan's economy out of the doldrums.
The rate increase in the uncollateralized overnight call rate, a short-term rate, was expected at the end of the two-day monetary policy board meeting and has widely figured into recent global markets.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said the decision was reached after looking at various risks like the war in Iran, the expanding market demand for artificial intelligence and currency fluctuations.
“The Japanese economy is continuing to recover gradually,” he told reporters, while noting inflation was close to the targeted 2%.
Analysts have said another increase was possible later this year or early next year. When asked about further hikes, Ueda stressed more time is needed to see if price increases stay stable, along with needing to monitor wage growth and other risk factors.
Two of the nine-member board dissented, expressing concerns about the strength of Japan's economic growth, according to Ueda.
The U.S. Federal Reserve also raised its key rate this week. The U.S. increase Wednesday, the first since 2023, was made in an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation.
The U.S. has also been pressuring Japan to raise rates because of concerns about the weakening yen.
The nations intervened together recently to prop up the yen. Despite the Bank of Japan's move, the U.S. dollar grew stronger, momentarily reaching above 157 yen. It reached above 160 yen earlier this year.
The Bank of Japan has set a target inflation rate of about 2%. Inflation is about that now in Japan, although some consumers complain that the recent surge in prices is too much, especially in gas and oil-related products.
“With crude oil prices remaining elevated, the Bank of Japan is expected to implement an additional rate hike sooner rather than later to limit the risk that consumer inflation exceeds the underlying inflation rate,” said Harumi Taguchi, an economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Higher rates may also weigh on the economy because of heavier borrowing costs for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as higher mortgages, she added.
Analysts are also worried about the aggressive public spending promised by the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, such as tax cuts and aggressive defense investments, when public debt is already ballooning.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose after the Bank of Japan decision was announced, edging up 1.4%.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE - A Japanese flag flutters at the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, July 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda arrives the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo, Sept. 18, 2026. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a press conference after a cabinet reshuffle at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (Rie Kikuchi/Pool Photo via AP)
