Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Article Extracted From Yahoo! News Web.
Tributes have flooded in from around the globe for legendary Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin a day after he died in a freak stingray attack that was captured on film.
As fans and media mourned the death of the irrepressible naturalist who became Australia's best-known ambassador, the premier of northeastern Queensland state, where Irwin lived and died, offered him a state funeral.
Australian movie star Russell Crowe, Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer meanwhile joined thousands of stunned fans in paying homage to Irwin, who died when a stingray's barb pierced his heart as he filmed an underwater documentary on Monday.
Newspapers around the world carried front-page reports on Irwin's grisly death at the age of 44 and on his life as a passionate environmental crusader and global media star.
"He was the Australian we all aspire to be," Irwin's friend Crowe said from New York in comments widely reported by the Australian media. "He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior.
"I believed in him. I'll miss him," the Oscar-winning star of such films as "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" said of Irwin, who is believed to have died instantly.
The attack as Irwin snorkelled about one metre (three feet) above the ray in shallow water off the town of Port Douglas was caught on film by a cameraman who was swimming ahead of the creature, police and Irwin's producers said.
Irwin's longtime friend and "Crocodile Hunter" television producer John Stainton, who had gone out to sea with Irwin on Monday, said the film of the deadly encounter was "shocking".
"I did see the footage and it's shocking," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... and it's terrible.
"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," he said.
While stingrays rarely attack humans -- only three other deaths by stingray have reportedly been recorded in Australia and only 17 worldwide -- their 20-centimetre (eight-inch) venomous barbs can be lethal.
Coroners in Cairns in the northeastern state of Queensland carried out an autopsy on Irwin late Monday and initial results confirmed that he died after being speared in the chest by the ray's barbed tail while he was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.
"We're not going into the detail but there's definitely no surprises. Everyone knows how he died," a police spokeswoman said of the post-mortem examination, details of which will be released at a coroner's inquest.
It remained unclear whether the ebullient Irwin died of blood loss, a heart attack induced by the blow or from the ray's venom, media reports said.
Coroners have a copy of the video and will examine it ahead of the inquest, the date of which has yet to be set, Queensland police spokeswoman Andrea Lennard told AFP.
"We don't think there will be any surprises on it, but it will be an added element for the coroner to examine," she said.
While no details of funeral arrangements for Irwin have been revealed, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the man known around the world for his ebullience, thick Aussie accent and khaki bush gear, would get a Queensland state funeral if his widow Terri requested one.
"He will be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian," Beattie told Channel Seven news, adding that Irwin was better known in the United States than Prime Minister John Howard.
Stainton noted said he never thought his friend -- whose hair-raising confrontations with crocodiles and deadly snakes made him famous -- would be killed by a relatively placid stingray.
"He always pushed himself to the very limits but I thought he was invulnerable and I think he did too. I would never imagine it to come from something like a stingray," he said.
I've always watched his shows...
I will never forget him...
He earned my worthy respect...
His death is a loss to the wildlife world.
- Starer
Tributes have flooded in from around the globe for legendary Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin a day after he died in a freak stingray attack that was captured on film.
As fans and media mourned the death of the irrepressible naturalist who became Australia's best-known ambassador, the premier of northeastern Queensland state, where Irwin lived and died, offered him a state funeral.
Australian movie star Russell Crowe, Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer meanwhile joined thousands of stunned fans in paying homage to Irwin, who died when a stingray's barb pierced his heart as he filmed an underwater documentary on Monday.
Newspapers around the world carried front-page reports on Irwin's grisly death at the age of 44 and on his life as a passionate environmental crusader and global media star.
"He was the Australian we all aspire to be," Irwin's friend Crowe said from New York in comments widely reported by the Australian media. "He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior.
"I believed in him. I'll miss him," the Oscar-winning star of such films as "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" said of Irwin, who is believed to have died instantly.
The attack as Irwin snorkelled about one metre (three feet) above the ray in shallow water off the town of Port Douglas was caught on film by a cameraman who was swimming ahead of the creature, police and Irwin's producers said.
Irwin's longtime friend and "Crocodile Hunter" television producer John Stainton, who had gone out to sea with Irwin on Monday, said the film of the deadly encounter was "shocking".
"I did see the footage and it's shocking," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... and it's terrible.
"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," he said.
While stingrays rarely attack humans -- only three other deaths by stingray have reportedly been recorded in Australia and only 17 worldwide -- their 20-centimetre (eight-inch) venomous barbs can be lethal.
Coroners in Cairns in the northeastern state of Queensland carried out an autopsy on Irwin late Monday and initial results confirmed that he died after being speared in the chest by the ray's barbed tail while he was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.
"We're not going into the detail but there's definitely no surprises. Everyone knows how he died," a police spokeswoman said of the post-mortem examination, details of which will be released at a coroner's inquest.
It remained unclear whether the ebullient Irwin died of blood loss, a heart attack induced by the blow or from the ray's venom, media reports said.
Coroners have a copy of the video and will examine it ahead of the inquest, the date of which has yet to be set, Queensland police spokeswoman Andrea Lennard told AFP.
"We don't think there will be any surprises on it, but it will be an added element for the coroner to examine," she said.
While no details of funeral arrangements for Irwin have been revealed, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the man known around the world for his ebullience, thick Aussie accent and khaki bush gear, would get a Queensland state funeral if his widow Terri requested one.
"He will be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian," Beattie told Channel Seven news, adding that Irwin was better known in the United States than Prime Minister John Howard.
Stainton noted said he never thought his friend -- whose hair-raising confrontations with crocodiles and deadly snakes made him famous -- would be killed by a relatively placid stingray.
"He always pushed himself to the very limits but I thought he was invulnerable and I think he did too. I would never imagine it to come from something like a stingray," he said.
I've always watched his shows...
I will never forget him...
He earned my worthy respect...
His death is a loss to the wildlife world.
- Starer
what we could have been, 12:11 PM.
