British tourist’s foot bitten off in shark attack in Australia
Backpacker’s friend also suffers severe leg injuries while snorkelling near the Great Barrier Reef
A BRITISH backpacker has had his foot bitten off, and another has been left with severe leg injuries following a shark attack off the Queensland coast in Australia.
Alistair Raddon, 28, from Southampton and Danny Maggs, 22, from Plymouth were bitten while snorkelling in the waters around the Whitsunday Islands, the scene of a number of shark attacks in recent years.
Both men were taken back to shore by a tourist boat before being airlifted to hospital where they underwent emergency surgery and were said to be recovering last night.
Medical staff who treated the pair said that despite their injuries they had been well enough to joke about England progressing further than the Australians in the Rugby World Cup.
Tracey Eastwick, from the Queensland Ambulance Service, said it is believed the shark attacked one man first before returning and going for his companion.
She said that the men had initially been treated by two paramedics who happened to be on board their tourist boat as guests.
The medics, who were thought to be German or Belgian nationals – applied tourniquets to the wounds in order to stem the bleeding, which doctors said had almost certainly saved the lives of the British pair.
Chien Wang, 22, a fellow tourist who was on board the same boat, said they were just preparing to move from the spot where they had been snorkelling when the shark struck. She said half of the group were still in the water when someone started shouting “shark”.
“At first I didn’t think it was serious.
Then he kept shouting. Everyone seemed scared,” she said.
Mr Raddon is understood to have been travelling in Asia since 2017, visiting Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia before returning briefly to the UK. He flew to Australia in January and has been backpacking throughout the country ever since.
Mr Maggs has also been travelling in the region for the past two years and the pair are thought to have become friends during their time in Australia.
Jean Anning, Mr Maggs’ grandmother, said: “I heard the news this morning from my daughter and she was in a state of shock.
“She said that she’d spoken to Danny in hospital on the phone…he seemed to be in fairly good spirits given what happened. He’s waiting to see how bad the injury is to his calf and if there is any sort of damage to any tendons.”
Unprovoked shark attacks have injured 10 people in Australia this year, according to the Australian Shark Attack File.