Tributes have been paid to an Italian surfer after she was stabbed in the chest by a swordfish and died off Indonesia’s west coast, the travel agency where she worked. said this week.
Giulia Manfrini, 36, was surfing when she was hit by a fish with a long, pointed beak in the Mentawai Islands off the coast of Sumatra island last week.
“She was surfing the water off Masokut Island. A swordfish suddenly jumped and hit her in the chest,” Mentawai’s acting chief Lahmudin Siregar told AFP on Tuesday.
“They took her to the nearest medical center but as soon as they arrived she didn’t make it.”
Lahmudin told the state-run Antara news agency that the swordfish had caused a wound 2 inches deep.
The resort where she had been staying said she loved surfing in the region.
“She was hit in the chest by a needlefish and died almost instantly,” Hidden Bay Resort Mentawais said in a statement on Instagram on Monday.
“However, we know she continued to do what she loved best and without suffering. May you follow your path of light and may you surf the eternal waves on the other side.”
James Colston, one of the founders of Manfrini’s travel agency AWAVE Travel, said in a statement Sunday that she “died doing what she loved, in a place she loved” in what he called a “freak accident.”
In one posts on social mediaAWAVE Travel said: “Despite the valiant efforts of her partner, local staff and doctors, Giulia could not be saved.”
The the company’s website says Manfrini was a former professional snowboarder who is the head of surf resort sales.
“Giulia was the lifeblood of this company and her infectious enthusiasm for surf, snow and life will be remembered by all who came in contact with her,” the company said in its statement.
Fabio Giulivi, mayor of Manfrini’s hometown of Venaria Reale, said surfing and opening a travel agency had been her “double dream”, the BBC reported.
Last year, American professional surfer Mikala Jones died 44 years after a surfing accident in the same region of Indonesia.
Previous research suggested that swordfish attacks are extremely rare, but in 2015 a man was killed in Hawaii after he was apparently impaled by a swordfish.