In Memorium

Wildlife expert Steve Irwin, famous for the TV show The Crocodile Hunter, was killed today in a freak accident while making an underwater film off Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin was killed when he was stung through the heart by a flat tropical fish called a stingray.

A member of the production team said he had gone out to film a sequence on stingrays when he swam over the venomous bottom-dweller, which has large pectoral fins like wings and can grow up to 4 metres long. He was 44.

He came over the top of the stingray and the barb went up into his chest and put a hole in his heart.

Doctors rushed by air to try and save the Australian but he died before he could be taken to hospital.

Steve has left behind a wife, 42-year-old Terri, and two children - eight-year-old daughter Bindi and his son Bob, two.

Stingray attacks on humans are incredibly rare, especially in Australia.

To see the size of the barb, visit this page on ABC News and click on the video link

And, you can put a turtle, (tu) in front of your MSN nickname too =)


Rest In Peace CROC HUNTER! Crikey