Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray during a diving expedition off the Australian coast.

Irwin, 44, died after being struck in the chest by the stingray’s barb while he was filming a documentary in Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.

Paramedics from Cairns rushed to the scene but were unable to save him.

Irwin was known for his television show The Crocodile Hunter and his work with native Australian wildlife.

Police in Queensland confirmed the environmentalist’s death and said his family had been notified. Mr Irwin was married with two young children.

The stingray is a flat, triangular-shaped fish, commonly found in tropical waters. It gets its name from the razor-sharp barb at the end of its tail, coated in toxic venom, which the animal uses to defend itself with when it feels threatened.

Attacks on humans are a rarity - only one other person is known to have died in Australia from a stingray attack, at St. Kilda, Melbourne in 1945.

Experts say that while painful, stingray venom is rarely lethal and it would have been the wound caused by the barb itself, which could measure up to 8 inches long, which proved fatal. What happened to Irwin is like being stabbed in the heart. It has little to do with the venom and all to do with the trauma caused by the barb of the stingray.

Irwin had built up what was a small reptile park in Queensland into what is now Australia Zoo, a major center for Australian wildlife.

He was famous for handling dangerous creatures such as crocodiles, snakes and spiders, and his documentaries on his work with crocodiles drew a worldwide audience.

But he also courted controversy with a series of stunts.

He sparked outrage across Australia after cradling his one-month-old son a meter away from the reptile during a show at Australia Zoo.

An investigation was launched into whether Irwin and his team interacted too closely with penguins and whales while filming in the Antarctic, but no action was taken.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer praised Irwin for his work to promote Australia.

[via BBC News]