SYDNEY (AP) — A swimmer in Australia has died of a heart attack after he was stung by a stingray.

Police say the 42-year-old man went into cardiac arrest on Saturday at Lauderdale Beach, east of Hobart in Tasmania, after he suffered a puncture wound to his lower abdomen.

He was swimming alone and close to shore when the attack happened. Friends pulled him from the water but failed in attempts to resuscitate him.

The incident recalled the 2006 death of "The Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin while filming an underwater scene for a television series, when a stingray's stinging barbs pierced his heart.