Woman, 60, attacked by shark `started punching, punching'

WHEN a shark seized Patricia Trumbull while she was snorkelling, she hit back.

WHEN a shark seized Patricia Trumbull while she was snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, she resolved it was "not going to get the better of me" and hit back.

The feisty 60-year-old told yesterday how she fought the 2m shark with her fists after it attacked near Dent Island in the Whitsundays on Saturday, inflicting horrific wounds on her legs and buttocks.

"I thought, this shark is not going to get the better of me," she told reporters from her bed in Mackay Base Hospital.

"I started punching it on the nose, punching, punching, punching, and then it got me under the water -- not much -- because I started kicking it on its neck.

"I came back up again and I punched him in the nose . . . punching, punching, punching."

The shark attack contributed to a busy weekend for marine emergency services in north Queensland, which swung into action again yesterday when a 13-year-old boy suffered a suspected irukandji jellyfish sting at Hardy Reef, also in the Whitsundays.

Ms Trumbull, originally of Sydney, was said to have lost more than a litre of blood in the attack, believed to have been by a reef shark or bronze whaler.

The mother-of-five was stabilised on nearby Hamilton Island before being airlifted to the hospital in Mackay, where staff yesterday described her wounds as staggering.

Ms Trumbull said she knew immediately she had been attacked by a shark when she felt "the most almighty huge tug" as it struck. She also said she could see its jagged teeth as she engaged in the life-and-death "tug of war".

Ms Trumbull praised a local resort manager who gave the first aid credited with saving her life.

The shark attack was the first in the Whitsunday Islands for 13 years and prompted assurances by authorities that the risk to swimmers was negligible.

"We had two shark attacks in 1997 -- since that time, we've had about eight million tourist visits to the Whitsunday section of the Great Barrier Reef trouble-free," said Tourism Whitsunday chief executive Peter O'Reilly.

Rescue helicopter spokesman Phillip Dowler praised Ms Trumbull's never-say-die attitude. She had won "the fight" started by the shark, he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP