Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray's barb - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune

Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray's barb - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune: " Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray's barb
The Associated Press

Published: September 4, 2006


CAIRNS, Australia Steve Irwin, the ebullient Australian whose catch cry of 'Crikey!' helped him rise to global fame as television's the 'Crocodile Hunter,' was killed Monday by a stingray while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was in the water at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called 'Ocean's Deadliest' when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, said John Stainton, a friend and colleague.

'He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,' said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat, Croc One, at the time.

Crew members called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and for regularly getting up close and personal with dangerous animals in his television program 'Crocodile Hunter,' which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 before it was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting him to international celebrity.

'The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet,' Stainton told reporters in Cairns. 'He died doing what he loved best and left this worl"