AUSTRALIA:An Australian abalone diver told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a great white shark yesterday but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks on the chest.
Diver Eric Nerhus (41) was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast, when the three- metre (10ft) shark attacked.
"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest - bite marks all the way around," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service said after airlifting the diver to hospital.
Mr Nerhus told fellow divers he didn't see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited.
"It was black. He didn't see it coming, but he felt the bite and then started getting shaken, and that's when he knew he was in the mouth of the shark," said local diver Michael Mashado.
The shark bit Nerhus around the head first, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, fellow diver and friend Dennis Luobikis said. "He was actually bitten by the head . . . the shark swallowed his head," said Mr Luobikis, adding that a second bite by the shark saw it clench its jaw around Mr Nerhus's torso.
Mr Nerhus fought frantically to free himself from the shark's jaws and was eventually pulled back aboard his boat by his son.
"He pushed his abalone chisel into its head while it was biting and it let him go and swam away," said Mr Luobikis.