(Picture: NSRI)
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Paddy Harper, City Press
Johannesburg – Another fatal shark attack has taken place at Port St Johns’ notorious Second Beach.
Resident Cat Yazbek told City Press the bather was taken by a shark at the beach shortly before 15:00.
“The person is dead. The body is floating round the point. It’s horrible,” said Yazbek.
Her partner, Michael Gatke, said the adult had been swimming at Second Beach along with a group of other people when the attack took place.
He said they had called the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) to try and recover the body.
Today’s is the eighth fatal shark attack at Second Beach in five years.
Spokesperson for NSRI Craig Lambinon said the victim was 72-year-old Austrian tourist, who was travelling with a tour group and his wife.
“Police have opened an inquest docket and the Austrian Consulate and the department of international relations and co-operation are informed.”
Lambinon said the species of the shark that attacked the man was not known.
On Christmas Day 2012, the notorious but highly popular beach – one of the jewels of the former Transkei’s Wild Coast – claimed its seventh victim since the current spate of fatal attacks began five years ago.
Liya Sibili, 22, from Ntsimbini, a rural village about 35km inland from Port St Johns, was taken by a shark in waist-deep water at Second Beach at around 16:20.
Only his bathing trunks were recovered despite a three-day search for his body. Last March, 39-year-old Fundile Nodumla survived an attack at the same beach.
