Steve Irwin Killed By Stingray

Leaving Port Douglas on Friday

Australian television animal show personality, Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter,” was killed instantly while filming a new documentary at Batt Reef off Northern Queensland. Irwin was swimming directy over a stingray, which struck upward. Its barb penetrated Irwin’s chest, puncturing his heart.

Sydney Morning Herald

Irwin’s death was evidently captured on film.

Smooth Stingray, aka Bull Ray Dasyatis brevicaudata Information sheet

UPDATE

Later reports say the film shows that Irwin pulled the stingray’s barb out of his chest before succumbing.

FATALLY injured by a stingray, Steve Irwin pulled its barb out of his chest before losing consciousness, dramatic footage of his last moments reveals.

Friend John Stainton said the footage of the stingray attack which took the life of the Crocodile Hunter on the Great Barrier Reef yesterday was “shocking”.

Mr Irwin, 44, died after the stingray barb punctured his chest while snorkelling off Port Douglas, in far north Queensland, yesterday.

A cameraman captured the incident during filming for Irwin’s new project with daughter Bindi, eight, that was to debut in the United States next year.

“I did see the footage and it’s shocking,” Mr Stainton said today in Cairns.

“It’s a very hard thing to watch because you’re actually witnessing somebody die … and it’s terrible.”

Mr Stainton, also a producer and director of Irwin’s popular television shows, said the footage showed Mr Irwin pulling the barb out of his chest before losing consciousness.

“It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he’s gone.

“That was it. The cameraman had to shut down.