Police said in a statement Sunday that emergency services were called to Byron Bay around 6:40 a.m. local time, after reports that a man surfing near Belongil Beach was bitten on the leg by a shark.
The 41-year-old local man returned to shore on his board and alerted other surfers, police said.
He was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics, before being airlifted to Gold Coast University Hospital in serious but stable condition, the statement said.
Belongil Beach and Main Beach have been closed for 24 hours.
Third shark attack of the year
It quoted the housemate as saying the pair had paddled back to shore together.
“We didn’t realize until we were on the beach that there was a big chunk taken out of his leg so there was a lot of blood,” he told the ABC.
The housemate told the broadcaster he and other bystanders used leg ropes — used to attach surfers to their boards — to make a tourniquet around the man’s leg.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Primary Industry told the ABC that scientists believe a juvenile great white shark may have attacked the man.
Before Sunday’s attack, the society had recorded two attacks so far this year, both of which took place in Queensland, the state bordering New South Wales to the north.
Source : Nbcnewyork