An Australian snorkeller calmly swam to shore and drove off to get help with a shark clamped to his leg after being bitten at a beach on the New South Wales coast.
Mr Luke Tresoglavic (22), was swimming 300 metres off Caves Beach, north of Sydney, when the young wobbegong shark, more than half a metre long, bit him and refused to let go.
" [I]instantly grabbed hold of it with both hands as hard as I could to stop it shaking," he told ABC radio. "I just realised I had to swim in like that, hanging on to it. Once I got on to shore, a couple of people tried to help me but I could not remove it; it was stuck there. So I got up into my car and then drove to the clubhouse and luckily the guys down there had a clue what to do."
Staff at the surf lifesavers' club were stunned when Mr Tresoglavic turned up with the shark still hanging from his leg, but made it let go by flushing out its gills with fresh water.
"The first we knew of it was a bloke lobbed up here at the lifeguard tower with a shark attached to his leg," said lifeguard Mr Michael Jones, who said Mr Tresoglavic had taken the incident well. "There was a side of humour to it," he said.
He was left with 70 tooth marks on his leg, but was discharged from hospital with a course of antibiotics. The shark was not so lucky, and is buried in Mr Tresoglavic's garden.
Wobbegongs are camouflaged seabed-dwellers which rarely attack unless stepped on, but are feared because of their mean temper.