Shark attacks surfer off Maui beach

CNN
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A 61-year-old Hawaiian surfer managed to swim to shore after a shark bit off part of his leg near a Maui beach, witnesses and authorities say.

The shark attack happened around 7 a.m. local time Friday in the waters off Waiehu Beach Park at a surf spot called Sand Piles, Maui County officials said said in a statement.

“I heard this scream and I looked and all of a sudden I just saw a splash and I don’t know what’s going on,” said a witness, David Basques. CNN affiliate KHNL.

“He swam back, maybe more than half the way, and then I saw somebody jump in,” Basque told KHNL, adding that the person who jumped in helped bring the man the rest of the way to shore.

Police, firefighters and medical personnel arrived shortly afterward and worked to stop the bleeding from the surfer’s leg, which was cut below the knee, authorities said.

The man was alert while being treated on land, officials said. He was taken to a Maui hospital in critical condition. CNN reached out to the hospital for an update on his condition Saturday.

Maui Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Giesea said Maui police’s “quick action” to apply a tourniquet to the man’s leg is the kind of decision that often makes the difference “between life and death,” he told KHNL.

“I would like to congratulate the patient for his strength and the means to reach the shore,” Giesea he said, according to KHNL. “I mean, now that’s awesome.” The fire chief also thanked the good Samaritans who assisted the victim.

The entrance to Waiehu Beach Park was closed after the incident and beachgoers were advised to stay out of the waters in the area until further notice, according to the release.

Maui County recorded at least 75 unprovoked shark attacks from 1828, and eight people in Hawaii were attacked by sharks last year — one fatally, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.

Surfers and people participating in board sports accounted for 42 percent of reported shark attack incidents globally last year, according to the International Shark Attack File’s 2023 report.