'My leg was in its jaws': Shark attacks snorkeller in Hawaii
It is believed a tiger shark attacked the victim. Stock image. Rex
A 61-year-old man is in hospital after being bitten by a shark in waters off Maui, Hawaii.
Star-Advertiser and Associated Press report that Tom Kennedy from Oregon, America, was snorkelling with another man about 200 yards offshore when he was attacked by a shark at 10:15am on Friday, causing multiple injuries to his lower left leg and thigh area.
Maui County officials said the size and type of the shark were not immediately known, but that the man said the shark's head was about two feet wide.
The Daily Mail reports that Kennedy estimated the shark as 10 feet long and described it to a shark expert.
'Based on my estimate of the size of the head and the coloration and the shape, his guess is it was a tiger shark,' he said.
Mr Kennedy said how he felt a tug while snorkelling and furiously swam away from the shark after it released him, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
'It released me. So I started swimming as fast as I could. I would guess I was a still a hundred yards from my board,' he said.
'As I went further, I started to bleed. I could see a string of blood, which was my next concern.'
The tourist suffered a gash to his left leg while swimming from the Kihei coastline at Kalama Beach and considers himself lucky to be alive.
'Initially it didn't hurt so much, it was mostly just fear of the second attack,' he told Hawaii News Now.
Kennedy was taken to Maui Medical Center and was bandaged up and admitted for multiple lacerations to his calf.
According to the Daily Mail, this is the third shark attack since October off Maui.
On 4 November, diver Marc Rigolos was bitten on his right leg by a 15ft tiger shark and in October, California tourist Mariko Haugen was injured fighting off a shark.
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