A live shark was found dumped on the doorstep of a newspaper's office in a coastal town in southeast Australia, police said on Thursday.

A passer-by alerted police in Warrnambool, Victoria, shortly after midnight that a shark was lying at the front door of the town's Standard newspaper.

"We arrived and poured some water on it just to see if it was still breathing and it kicked around for a little while," said Constable Jarrod Dwyer, who said the shark was about 70 centimetres (two feet four inches) long.

Dwyer said they took the shark to the town's breakwater in a borrowed bucket of water, and released it into the sea.

The fish, identified as a Port Jackson shark, which is regarded as harmless to humans except for two dorsal spines reputed to be venomous, swam off.

The newspaper "had no ideas of any person that wished them any harm or wished to send them any type of message, so we're a little dumbfounded at this stage," Dwyer said.

Dwyer's partner, Sergeant Greg Cresell, said it was one of the most bizarre incidents he'd come across in his time as a police officer.

"We've had some strange things in the van before but never a shark," he said.

If caught, the person responsible for dumping the shark would be charged with cruelty to animals, police said.

AFP

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