A holidaymaker has recalled the gruesome moment a massive shark sank its teeth into a surfer and ripped his body to shreds.
Ian Brophy, 70, from NSW, had been about to get into the water at Granite Beach, south of Streaky Bay, South , at about 10.20am on Tuesday.
He heard someone call out ‘shark!’ before a 55-year-old surfer was mauled to death by a four-metre long great white in front of his very eyes.
‘As I turned around I saw the shark go and just launch and bite… over the top of the guy and bite and drag him down under the water and then nothing for a minute or two and blood everywhere and then up pops the board,’ Mr Brophy told The Advertiser.
‘That’s all it was, was this guy getting torn apart. I saw him in the wave and the shark had his body in his mouth. It was pretty gruesome.’
Witness Jeff Schmucker rode his jet ski out into the water at Granite Beach after a surfer was mauled by a shark
A surfer has been mauled to death by a monster 4.2metre shark at an isolated beach, witnesses have revealed (pictured is a shark seen in the area soon after)
Mr Brophy said the surfer’s board was the only thing that was spared from the fatal attack and said he saw the man inside the shark’s mouth.
‘And then after he digested that first, whether it be his head or his arms or whatever, he came back in about four minutes time and all that was left was the board,’ he said.
‘It took every bit of him I think. Sixty years of surfing and I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life.’
Fellow surfer Jeff Schmucker had earlier raced to the scene and said he spoke to one of the dozen people in the water who watched the horror unfold.
‘It attacked him from the side. He went under once and came up again and went under again and that’s the last the lad saw of him,’ Mr Schmucker told 7News.
Mr Schmucker later took his jet ski out into the surf to try and find the victim but then found himself close to a four-metre shark he believed to be the killer.
The only remains he found were the victim’s surfboard with a huge bite mark in it, with Mr Schmucker describing the shark as a ‘f**king monster’.
Police immediately responded and initiated a search with the assistance of Police Water Operations, PolAir, State Emergency Service and local volunteers following the attack.
The surfer is yet to be found.
Streaky Bay is located 700km northwest of Adelaide and is a popular coastal tourist town with nearby attractions including the Smooth Pool and High Cliffs.
The area is also well-known for its large great white shark population with a recognised breeding ground just down the coast from Streaky Bay in Elliston.
Emergency crews are seen at Granites Beach following the shark attack on Tuesday morning
Tuesday’s attack was the region’s second in recent weeks after South n woman Pamela Cook was mauled by a shark at Beachport on October 2.
The 64-year-old was on her morning swim with local community group Beachport Sea Urchins and Slugs when she was attacked shortly before 8am.
She was bitten on the leg and flown to Mount Gambier Hospital in a stable condition.
Just months earlier in May, 46-year-old Elliston man Simon Baccanello was killed in a shark attack on Walkers Rocks Beach.
The teacher was mauled some 30 to 50 metres offshore.