Snorkeler Repeatedly Punched Shark After 12-Foot-Long Predator Mauled His Leg

A British snorkeler swimming off the coast of Sante Fe, part of the Galapagos Islands, punched a shark while the predator mauled his leg. Andrew Newman, who was lucky to be alive, had severed ligaments and suffered a broken bone when the 12-foot-long shark sunk its jaws into his right foot.

Graphic photos of the 45-year-old's injury in the leg were posted by several United Kingdom-based tabloids. Newman said he managed to escape the shark's clutches by repeatedly punching it in the face. The incident took place Saturday and Newman had to travel three hours to reach a hospital.

He received dozens of stitches in his foot as the jaw bites were deep. He also had severe blood loss after his fellow swimmers pulled him out of the water and rested him on a rock.

"I have a long term fear of sharks and water, after I had watched Jaws and The Beach when he punches the shark I had recalled it in my head because I was so fearful," Newman said. "We saw small sharks on the bottom and lots of sea lion pups and a turtle, all 16 of us got into two dingheys and our leader said this is your last activity of the whole holiday, so we went back to the start to film more sea lion pups but when we got there the dad was barking away like an alarm, so I don't know if he had seen the shark."

Newman said within a minute of him being in the water, there was "this clamp like vice" around his foot.

"I immediately thought it was a friend having a joke because I had spent a lot of time grabbing other people's feet as a joke and I thought they were getting me back," he said. "That was when I turned around and my foot was in the shark's mouth, his eyes were no more than a metre away from me — this massive shark head with white eyes, we were just staring at each other with my whole foot in its mouth, he wouldn't let go.

"It was a thought of utter fear but then my reactions came to which was to punch the living daylights out of it, I must have punched it about four or five times, then it let go," he went on adding: "Half my foot looked like it was hanging off, I didn't feel any pain when I saw my bones and tendons, I could just see the blood pumping."

Describing his ordeal, Newman said: "When I close my eyes all I can see is the shark's white eye and my foot in his mouth."

This kind of shark attack is rare in Ecuador with just eight reported since records began more than 60 years ago, website Shark Attack Data claimed.