A dingo has been put down after it mauled a French tourist and her nine-year-old son in a gruesome attack on a popular holiday island.
A 24-year-old woman and her young child remain in a stable condition after they were set upon by a pack of dingoes on Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast on Thursday night.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QWPS) officers managed to catch one of the dingoes and euthanised the animal.
They are still searching for a second dingo.
A dingo has been put down after it mauled a French tourist and her nine-year-old son in a gruesome attack on a popular holiday island (stock image)
Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesperson Michael Augustus said the mother and child had left their vehicle at Eurong Beach – on the east coast of the island – when they came across the animals.
‘The couple both panicked and ran back towards the vehicle and it was at that time when the pack actually chased them and attacked,’ he said.
Another QAS spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia, at the time of the attack, that the young boy suffered lacerations to his leg and face and his mother received puncture wounds to her arms.
The duo were airlifted to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital by the Bundaberg RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter in a stable condition.
Lifeflight said the aeromedical crew worked alongside paramedics from the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) to stabilise the pair before flying them to hospital.
The journey was a six-hour round trip and the crew did not return to the base until midnight.
The Department of Environment and Science said the incident would be investigated by parks and wildlife and patrols increased on the island.
‘Rangers will also increase patrols at campgrounds and other island arrival points to warn visitors of the dangers associated with dingoes,’ a spokesman said.
The incident comes a month after a six-year-old boy was attacked by four dingoes on a family camping trip on Fraser Island.
The young boy was bitten on the leg and was airlifted to hospital.
A 24-year-old woman and her young child remain in a stable condition after a pack of dingoes set upon them on Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast on Thursday night
Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesperson Michael Augustus said the mother and child had just gotten out of their vehicle at Eurong Beach – on the east coast of the island – when they came across the animals
‘The family had finished swimming when the young boy said he wanted to race up a sand dune,’ RACQ LifeFlight Rescue aircrewman Dan Leggat said.
‘Unfortunately, when he got to the top, there was a pack of four dingoes.’
Paramedics treated and stabilised the boy to be transported by the Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter.
Dingoes are a protected species on Fraser Island.
‘Wildlife authorities recognise that Fraser Island dingoes may become the purest strain of dingo on the eastern Australian seaboard and perhaps Australia-wide,’ the Queensland Department of Environment and Science website states.
Thursday’s incident was the eight dingo attack at the popular tourist spot in the last 20 years.
One attack resulted in the death of nine-year-old Clinton Gage in 2001.
His death sparked the culling of 31 dingoes and caused an outcry among residents.
A dingo was also responsible for murdering Lindy Chamberlain’s baby in the outback in 1980 in a notorious case which divided Australia.
Paramedics treated and stabilised the boy to be transported by the Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter
In the years since she cried out in the night ‘A dingo’s got my baby!’, there were four inquests and a government inquiry into nine-week-old Azaria’s death.
Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton was jailed in 1982 after being found guilty of slashing her daughter’s throat and making it look like a dingo attack.
She was released in 1986 after Englishman David Brett fell to his death while climbing Ayers Rock – known today by its Aboriginal name of Uluru – and landed beside a matinee jacket that was vital to her defence.
Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton had told police that no dingo saliva had been found on Azaria’s jumpsuit because the baby was wearing a matinee jacket over the jumpsuit, but no jacket was found at the time the child disappeared.
A third inquest in 1995 could not determine the cause of death. Mr Chamberlain, who was convicted of being an accessory after the fact of murder but later exonerated, then fought a long legal battle for a fourth inquest.
That inquest heard new evidence of dingo attacks, including three fatal attacks on children since the third inquest.
Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton was finally exonerated in 2012.