Sydney - A surfer was bitten by a shark off the Victorian coast but managed to get to shore and drive himself to hospital, a media report said on Monday.
The 40-year-old man told the broadcaster ABC that he was surfing alone at Tyrendarra, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, when he felt a bite on his board and saw a 2-metre bronze whaler shark come up on his righthand side.
“It put a bite in my wetsuit on my left-hand thigh, and basically from there it just kept coming back on each side,” the man, who did not want to be named, told the ABC.
“Every time I saw its head or it was up near me I tried to punch it as hard as I could.”
He broke free and paddled to the beach then drove himself to hospital where he underwent surgery.
The surfer said just before the attack he saw a group of seals breaching the water around him.
On Saturday, a young woman saw her father killed by a great white shark while they were diving off Tasmania.
DPA