A man survived a shark attack by punching him in the face before being rescued by other swimmers at a popular California beach, a witness said.
The 46-year-old man was in the water with a group at Del Mar City Beach near San Diego when he was bitten on the torso, left arm and hand about 90 meters from the shore.
One of the swimmers, Jenna Veal, was behind the victim during the attack and told Sky partner NBC News that she heard him scream for help.
“He punched him in the face. He punched him in the nose,” she told NBC’s TODAY show.
“I know he had a cut on his hand caused by a shark tooth.”
The group carried the man back to shore, where a passing emergency department doctor stopped to help him.
Veal said there was a “massive outpouring of support from everyone,” adding that the victim remained conscious throughout and is expected to recover.
Sharks, including great whites, approach swimmers almost every day on San Diego beaches. File photo: AP
Another witness told the programme: “When we saw the guy swim backwards it was really shocking.”
Lifeguards were setting up on the beach for the day when they were alerted.
The victim, a swimmer who regularly trains at the beach, suffered significant but non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment, city officials said.
Almost the entire stretch of beach was closed after the attack on Sunday morning.
One of the swimmers was equipped with a tourniquet, although it is unclear whether it was used, Jon Edelbrock, the city’s chief lifeguard, said on the show.
A drone and boat were later deployed to search for the shark without success.
“The water visibility was really poor,” Mr. Edelbrock said.
“You just can’t see anything moving through the water column. The exact timing of the incident was really the only interaction or sighting of the shark.”
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sharks including white sharks approach swimmers, surfers and paddlers almost every day in the waters of Del Mar and San Diego’s Torrey Pines Beach, experts say. Only 20 unprovoked attacks have been recorded in the county since 1926, according to the International Shark Attack File database.
San Diego waters are considered aggregation sites where sharks frequently feed. Shark attacks are less likely in those areas because the animals are used to being in the water with humans and are therefore unlikely to be confused with more typical prey, such as sea lions.
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“There are a lot of sharks there and a lot of people around every day. So we’re not really sure why this particular event occurred,” said Chris Lowe, professor of marine biology and director of the California State Shark Laboratory. University, he told Reuters news agency.
His team has tagged 225 juvenile white sharks and monitors their movements.
“It could have been a new shark in the area that was coming in and wasn’t used to people and made a mistake,” he said.
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