Large Shark Kills Swimmer Off New Zealand

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A man has been killed in a rare great white shark attack off the coast of New Zealand.

Police and lifesavers recovered the man's body on Wednesday afternoon at Muriwai, a popular surfing beach near the city of Auckland, on New Zealand's North Island.

Witness Stef McCallum, 18, said about 200 people were on the beach at the time. 

She saw a police officer go out in a surf lifesaving boat and fire "about 20" shots into the water at the shark.

"Everybody was evacuated from the water. Word of mouth, 'shark', and everybody left the water," she said.

Another witness Pio Mose claimed he saw three sharks.

He told The New Zealand Herald he saw the swimmer struggle against one "huge" shark. He told the man to swim to the rocks, but it was too late.

"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," Mr Mose said. "... I was shaking, scared, panicked."

Police in a helicopter directed inflatable boats to the scene

Another witness told television station 3 News NZ that he spotted the lone swimmer while he was fishing at the beach.

The distressed man signalled for help when he was attacked, before he was pulled underwater. At this point, the witness said, three or four other sharks appeared in the area.

Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said in a statement that the swimmer, was about 200 meters (650 feet) offshore when the shark attacked.

He said police went out in inflatable surf-lifesaving boats and shot at the shark, which they estimate was 12 to 14 feet long.

As many as 200 people were on the beach at the time of the attack

"It rolled over and disappeared," Insp Rutene said, without saying whether police are certain that they killed the creature.

The authorities in the area have closed the beach.

A St John ambulance spokeswoman told the AFP news agency the victim was 47 years old. Inspector Matt Sillars said his body has been recovered.

"We're not sure at this stage whether or not the deceased died prior to the shark arriving on the scene, or whether the shark was a contributing factor towards the death," he said.

It is understood the man was a local and his family gathered at the scene.

The beach is popular with surfers and several of those on the beach at the time gathered in the local club's hut afterwards to find out more information about what had happened.

Earlier this week, surfer Bourne Nobel Buiski had posted on Facebook that there had been a "massive" shark spotted near surfers on Monday at Piha, 14 kilometres south of Muriwai.

He said that a local man ran out of the water "white faced and terrified".

"He was saying that a great white, a massive great white had just swum right beside him," Mr Buiski said. No one believed him, he said. "As they are so rare here. There were about 60 people there, and no one came in."

Fatal shark attacks are relatively rare in New Zealand with just over a dozen deaths since record-keeping began in the 1830s.

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