US shark attack teen tells of losing arm

A US teenager has recounted how a shark attacked him, "biting up my left arm", and the quick thinking of beach-goers that saved his life.

A TEENAGER who lost an arm in a shark attack in the US state of North Carolina says he felt the big fish before he saw it and didn't realise what it was until it was "biting up my left arm".

"WE were just playing around in the waves, and I felt a hit on my left calf," 16-year-old Hunter Treschl said in a videotaped interview released on Tuesday night by the hospital where he is being treated.