Tourist killed by ‘dinosaur-sized’ shark
Witnesses today described their horror at seeing a tourist being eaten by a “gigantic” shark in South Africa’s most popular holiday destination.
Lloyd Skinner was pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by the shark, believed to be a great white, off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. His diving goggles and a dark patch of blood were all that remained in the water.
“Holy shit. We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house,” witness Gregg Coppen posted on Twitter. “That shark was huge. Like dinosaur huge.”
The shocking attack yesterday afternoon came after an increase in recent shark sightings and led to calls for an electronic warning system to alert swimmers.
Skinner, 37, a Zimbabwean who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was standing chest-deep 100 metres from the shore and adjusting his goggles when the shark struck. It was seen approaching him twice before he disappeared in a flurry of thrashing. Cape Town’s disaster management services had issued a warning hours earlier that sharks had been spotted in the water, but the shark flag was not flying.
Witnesses described the terrifying scene. The shark was “longer than a minibus”, Coppen told the Cape Times newspaper.
He said: “It was this giant shadow heading to something colourful. Then it sort of came out the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing which turned out to be a person.”
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Jack Says:
They’re all “dinosaurs” when you’re on the receiving end. I can’t believe people continue to swim in shark infested waters.
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Pat Says:
Interesting!! I was having a long discussion about Great Whites last night. 21-23′ (6-8000 lbs.) is the largest known but then, little is known of them. They are estimated to live 100 years and some scientists think that the forerunner of the Great White, which went to 50′, may still exist in the ocean depths. Now that’s a monster!!
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
mike Says:
If the swimmer had been a lawyer he would have been okay. It’s a professional courtesy thing.
mid island mike
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 6:57 pm