In the French Pacific region of New Caledonia, a shark killed a 59-year-old Australian visitor on Sunday close to a busy beach, according to police.
The shark struck and bit the man multiple times when he was swimming close to a pontoon around 150 meters (500 feet) from the beach in Noumea, according to reports.
He was hurried back to the shore where the rescue services attempted to resuscitate him by two people sailing their boat nearby. According to the local prosecutor Yves Dupas, the victim suffered severe bite wounds to both arms and his leg.
In spite of receiving cardiac massage, he passed away at the site.
The incident at the Chateau-Royal beach was seen by many persons who were in the water at the time.
There was a panicked rush back onto the beach and police evacuated the area.
Noumea’s mayor, Sonia Lagarde, ordered the closure of most beaches in the area and the capture of tiger sharks and bull sharks in nearby waters.
Drones were deployed to track them and two were sighted before operations were suspended at nightfall, police said.
The prosecutor said an investigation would shed more light on the circumstances of the attack, which happened inside the zone watched over by lifeguards.
A 49-year-old swimmer was seriously injured by a shark last month, also near the Chateau-Royal beach.
A surfer was also attacked by a shark a few days later but escaped without injury.
New Caledonia lies south of Vanuatu and 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) east of Australia.
It ranks 13th in the world for the total number of shark attacks, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which has kept a tally of worldwide shark attacks since 1958.
