PHOTO: Courtesy of Geoffrey Knapp.
A surfer has been taken to hospital by friends after a suspected shark attack near Broken Head on the NSW north coast.
9NEWS understands the 29-year-old man suffered minor lacerations to his leg, with his board taking the brunt of the impact.
Witness Stuart Holland told the TODAY Show he was walking along the beach watching his kids, who had just entered the water, when he noticed people gathering further up the beach.
“There was a group of guys coming in and they were starting to walk back up the beach waving their boards around,” he said.
“One of them was definitely limping, had blood running down from the bottom of his wetsuit, quite a lot of blood.
“They were waving their boards trying to indicate to other surfers. At that point I started to panic about my kids.
“[They were] paddling out to where the main pack was, which was thinning down by that point because obviously they’d heard, but my kids hadn’t.”
His daughter Belinda Holland said she was surfing when she saw “his board went flying into the air”. She said her dad called her back in to the beach.
“He got a massive chunk out of his leg and his side and it was a lot of blood.”
UPDATE: @FNCSLS closing #Byron Shire beaches after surfer mauled by shark at #BrokenHead – @nbnnews pic.twitter.com/PPc6XH4Y9c
— Sam Burbury (@SamBurbury) October 23, 2016
The man was taken to Byron Bay Hospital by friends.
All beaches across Byron Bay including the patrolled Main Beach will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours. A decision on when to reopen the beaches will be made tomorrow.
The species of the shark involved is not known.
The matter has been referred to the NSW Department of Primary Industries for Investigation.
Man reportedly bitten by shark while surfing at #BrokenHead – @nbnnews pic.twitter.com/iBNba1dZUU
— Sam Burbury (@SamBurbury) October 23, 2016
