Shark Kills 65-Year-Old Swimmer off Orient Beach in South Africa

Updated 20:02 UTC. Developing story.

A shark attacked and killed a 65-year-old woman during a morning swim off Orient Beach in KuGompo City, South Africa, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, local officials and witnesses said. The city, in the Eastern Cape province on the Indian Ocean coast, was formerly known as East London.

Reports placed the attack in the early morning, at about 7 a.m. local time according to a municipal spokesperson quoted by Reuters, and after 8 a.m. according to a witness account reported by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The woman was swimming with a group when she signalled that she was in trouble.

A fellow swimmer told the SABC that the group quickly realised what had happened. "We all realised she had been bitten by a shark, and she was in a very bad way," the witness said. "The bites were very severe, but there were only two, one on her thigh and one on her upper arm."

Other swimmers brought her back to shore, where she was pronounced dead on the beach.

Beaches closed, inquest opened

The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality confirmed a shark attack in KuGompo City and closed Orient Beach and nearby Eastern Beach until further notice. The municipality urged people at other beaches in the area to stay alert and follow safety instructions.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Col. Siphokazi Mawisa told the Associated Press that police had opened an inquest into the woman's death. The species of shark involved was not immediately known.

A regular in the local swimming community

South African media identified the woman as Janine Lochrenberg, a retired nuclear radiographer and musician. Fellow swimmer Mike Loewe described her as a regular open-water swimmer and said her death had devastated the local swimming community. Reports said she was a member of the East London open-water swimming community, a group that swims regularly off the city's beaches.

Shark attacks remain rare, but South Africa's Eastern Cape coast is known for shark activity and for great white shark tourism. According to figures from the University of Florida International Shark Attack File cited in news reports, there were 65 unprovoked shark bites worldwide in 2025, including nine deaths, compared with 47 bites in 2024. South Africa recorded one unprovoked attack in 2025, and it was fatal.

Officials did not say when the closed beaches would reopen. Swimmers and beachgoers in the area were told to stay out of the water at the closed beaches and to use caution elsewhere until authorities give further guidance.