Ouch! What a very British shark attack
A SURFER fought off a shark after it clamped its jaws around his leg in what is thought to be the first attack of its kind in British waters.
Rich Thomson, 30, was swimming off the coast of Devon when the three-foot beast grabbed his thigh and started thrashing wildly.
The teacher bashed the fish, thought to be a smooth hound, on the head and it swam away. But the terrifying encounter left him with extensive bruising and his hand ‘cut to pieces’.
Experts said it was the first incident involving a surfer in British waters, and one of only a handful of attacks in the last 100 years.
Mr Thomson said his thick winter wetsuit was the only thing protecting him from more serious injury.
Describing the encounter off Bantham beach, he told the BBC: ‘I turned round and saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side. I hit it on the head and it swam off.
‘My hand was cut to pieces. I had a Blood: Mr Thomson’s injured hand quite a sizeable bruise about three inches across. I went home and told my wife I was late because I had been bitten by a shark. She said “I’ve heard that one before”, but it was true.
‘It won’t stop me going back in the water and it shouldn’t stop anyone, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ Mr Thomson said his pupils at Kingsbridge Community College had bought him shark ties and dubbed him ‘Sharkbait’ and ‘Nemo’.