Surfer Mike Ruttkowski opens up about being bitten by a shark at Manly Beach

A surfer who was bitten by a shark at Manly Beach has described the terrifying moment the creature latched onto his foot. WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE FIRST INTERVIEW.

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A SURFER who was bitten by a shark at Manly Beach has described the terrifying moment the creature latched onto his foot.

Mike Ruttkowski was paddling 15m from shore, just off the surf club at South Steyne, on Wednesday evening when the shark struck.

Mike Ruttkowski the day after he was bitten. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

Bite marks where the man was bitten by the shark. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

“It felt like my foot was caught in a steel trap,” the 28-year-old German traveller said.

Mr Ruttkowski, an architect drom Dusseldorf who is in Australia on working holiday, told the Manly Daily that a “baby” shark grabbed his right foot as he paddled towards the beach just after 6.30pm.

The surfer, was left with a number of small incisions on the top and bottom of his foot.

His foot is badly swollen.

“I had only been in the water for about 20 minutes and had caught two or three waves,” Mr Ruttkowski said today from the living room of his Manly unit.

“Something grabbed and pulled at my foot. There was a lot of pressure. It felt like my foot was caught in a steel trap.

Bite marks where the man was bitten by the shark. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

“It was wriggling around and felt like it was tangled around my foot.

“I shook it off and looked down and there was a lot of blood in the water.”

Mr Ruttkowski quickly paddled in with blood streaming from at least 10 separate cuts.

The injuries sparked Manly Life Saving Club volunteers to ring the club’s shark alarm bell and urge other surfers out of the water.

Manly Life Saving Club patrol vice-captain Annie Gee, who was on the beach supervising a training session was the first person to give the surfer first aid.

Tom Crawford, a Manly surf club patrol captain and his wife Bec, arrived just two minutes later after they were alerted to a possible shark incident.

Mrs Crawford rang the shark bell to alert surfers.

“Only (council) lifeguards have access to the siren, so after 6pm we had to use the bell,” Mr Crawford said.

Tim Cuthbert, a senior rescue expert at the club, was also on the scene with a megaphone calling people out of the water.

Mr Crawford said he was told by Ms Gee that there were wounds at the top and the bottom of the foot that seemed to be consistent with a shark bite.

“It was not superficial, it was quite deep. There was quite a lot of blood on the ground,” he said.

Mr Ruttkowski said the water was murky with a lot of swirling sand and he did not see the shark.

“It was pretty scary. It all happened so quickly.”

Paramedics treated him in the back of an ambulance. They cleaned his wounds and bandaged his foot.

They did not take him to hospital but suggested he visit a doctor today to have the wounds examined.

Mr Ruttkowski said he would be resting today but was determined to get back in the water as soon as possible.

“This will make an amazing story for the family back home,” he said.

Lifeguards have placed “Shark Sighted” and “Beach Closed” signs on the beach.

Council CEO Ray Brownlee said lifeguards conducted patrols with jet skis from 6am today.

“There was no evidence of sharks in the area,” Mr Brownlee said.

“The beach is currently closed.

“Lifeguards will continue to monitor the sea conditions and if the circumstances warrant, the beach will re-open later today.”

Meanwhile, there were fewer Bold & Beautiful swimmers than usual on Thursday morning for their daily swim between Manly and Shelly Beach.

Errol Abbott, 82, was not put off his usual swim from Manly to Shelly with the Bold & Beautiful swimmers on Thursday, the day after a possible shark incident off Manly Beach. Picture: Elaine de Jager.

About 30 took the plunge, compared to around 200 who normally swim.

Among them was 82-year-old Errol Abbott, who is just out of hospital.

Fellow Bold & Beautiful swimmer Elaine de Jager said the numbers were far fewer than usual.

One regular Sarah Procter Abbott said on the Bold & Beautiful Facebook page: “There was a really large sting ray between the beach and the Point this morning … quite shallow.”