Officials say a woman is in critical condition after she was mauled by a shark on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Ambulance spokeswoman Tracey Eastwick says the 46-year-old tourist from Tasmania state was swimming on Wednesday from a yacht in Cid harbour on Whitsunday Island off the Queensland state coast when she was attacked by the shark that mauled her upper thigh.

She says a Mackay Base Hospital doctor happened to be on a nearby yacht and helped slow the bleeding before a rescue helicopter arrived.

The woman reached the hospital complaining of significant levels of pain.

The hospital reported the woman remained in a critical condition on Thursday after undergoing surgery on Wednesday night.