Surfer dies after being stabbed in the chest by a swordfish off the coast of Indonesia: ‘Died doing what she loved’

Tributes have been paid to an Italian surfer after she was stabbed in the chest by a swordfish and died off the west coast of Indonesia, the travel agency where she worked said this week.

Giulia Manfrini, 36, was surfing when she was struck by a fish with a long, pointed beak in the Mentawai Islands, off the coast of Sumatra island, last week.

“She was surfing in the waters off Masokut Island. Suddenly a swordfish jumped up and hit her in the chest,” Lahmudin Siregar, acting head of the Mentawai disaster management agency, told AFP on Tuesday.

“They took her to the nearest clinic, but when they got there, she didn’t make it.”

Lahmudin told state news agency Antara that the swordfish caused a wound five centimeters deep.

The resort where she stayed said she loved surfing in the area.

“She was hit in the chest by a needlefish and died almost instantly,” Hidden Bay Resort Mentawais said in an Instagram statement on Monday.

“However, we know that she continued to do what she loved most and did so without suffering. May you follow your path of light and may you surf the eternal waves on the other side.”

James Colston, co-founder 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 a social media post, AWAVE Travel said: “Even with the courageous efforts of her partner, local resort staff and doctors, Giulia could not be saved.”

The company’s website says Manfrini is a former professional snowboarder who heads sales for the surf resorts.

“Giulia was the lifeblood of this company and her infectious enthusiasm for surf, snow and life will be remembered by everyone who came into contact with her,” the company said in its statement.

Fabio Giulivi, the mayor of Manfrini’s hometown of Venaria Reale, said surfing and opening a travel agency were her “double dream,” the BBC reported.

Last year American professional surfer Mikala Jones has died at the age of 44 after a surfing accident in the same region of Indonesia.

Previous research has found that swordfish attacks are extremely rare, but in 2015 a man in Hawaii was killed after he was apparently impaled by a swordfish’s beak.