Horrible footage captures desperate rescue attempt of shark attack victim
Horrible footage captured the confronting attempted rescue of an Australian man attacked by a shark in New Caledonia.
NSW
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Horrifying footage too graphic to share was captured of the shark attack that killed a 59-year-old Australian tourist in New Caledonia on the weekend.
The confronting video showed the desperate efforts of two lifeguards who on Sunday scooped the extensively injured man from the ocean and brought him to shore after he was attacked about 4pm (local time).
He had been swimming about 150 metres from a jetty in Noumea when a shark, believed to be a tiger shark about four metres in length, bit him several times on the legs and arms.
In footage of the traumatic incident, he appeared unresponsive when he arrived at the shoreline on a jetski.
One of the lifeguards pulled him from the vessel onto the sand while the other ran up the beach for help.
At one stage, the lifeguard helping the man fell backwards into the water, and struggled on his own before the other came back to assist.
Despite their efforts to resuscitate the man, who was wearing boardshorts at the time, he could not be saved and was carried off the beach covered in foil on a stretcher.
The man, who has yet to be identified, was understood to have been holidaying alone prior to the fatal attack.
It has since been revealed the shark may have been attracted to the crowded beach by food tossed into the water from a nearby restaurant’s viewing platform.
The beach had only reopened to the public three days earlier after 49-year-old teacher, Bridgette Do, lost her leg in a shark attack there on January 29.
Australian couple Lance and Jane Rae saw the tragedy unfold and sprung into action immediately when they heard “the most awful screams” coming from the water near the jetty.
The attack unfolded only metres from where the Aussie man was killed on Sunday.
A man on a stand-up paddle board was nearby at the time and managed to pull Mrs Do onto his board.
As he paddled her into shore, the “massive” shark swam circles around them, following the heavy trail of blood.
Mr Rae told news.com.au he was so terrified the shark would attack someone else that he asked a responding police officer to execute it.
“I could see the shark was coming in, and it was really big, so I said to one of police ‘shoot the shark’, but he wouldn’t,” he said.
“I said, ‘give me your gun and I’ll do it’ … it kept coming in and I just couldn’t believe how big it was, but he wouldn’t shoot it.”
Mrs Do has since been transferred to Westmead Private Hospital in Sydney where she has been receiving treatment for her extensive injuries.
A man on a hydrofoil was attacked in the same spot a few days after Mrs Do was bitten, but he was able to make a lucky escape.
The man killed on Sunday was understood to have been staying at nearby Le Meridien Hotel.
“It happened so close to shore, the poor victim was face down in the water when the jet ski got to him,” a guest at nearby Hotel Chateau Royal told Daily Mail Australia.
“There was blood everywhere, we could see it from the beach. So many people were in the water at the same time and they’d only reopened the beach a few days ago.”
The beach was closed immediately after Sunday’s incident and has not been reopened.
Originally published as Horrible footage captures desperate rescue attempt of shark attack victim
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