Surfer Killed After Shark Bites His Legs Off

A man has been killed by a shark off Australia's east coast, not far from where a surfer was mauled by a shark a day earlier.

Tadashi Nakahara, a Japanese national, was pulled out of the water by a group of surfers at Shelly Beach in the northern New South Wales town of Ballina on Monday.

The 41-year-old had been sitting on his board waiting for a wave when the shark came up and bit his legs off, according to David Wright, the town's mayor.

Reports said he had only been about 10m from the shore.

His friends rushed to help him and tried to stop the bleeding with tourniquets before performing CPR but Mr Wright said that, because he had lost both legs, he "bled to death very quickly".

The victim has not been named but Mr Wright said he had been living in the town and worked at a surf shop and as cleaner at a hotel.

Beaches in the area were swiftly closed.

Ballina is 12 miles (20km) south of Seven Mile Beach, where Jabez Reitman was attacked on Sunday.

The 35-year-old surfer drove himself to hospital after suffering wounds to his back and buttocks in the ordeal , and said he thought he had initially encountered a dolphin.

"I just freaked out," Mr Reitman told reporters as he was taken from an ambulance at a hospital.

"I thought it was a dolphin at first until I started feeling and realised it was pretty significant lacerations."

Mr Reitman said he was surfing near the tourist town of Byron Bay when he was attacked by what he described as a seven to 10ft (two to three metre) shark.

"I should've stayed in bed," he said of his decision to hit the waves, adding that he was "shocked but in good spirits".

He was later transferred from Byron Bay to Gold Coast University Hospital, where his condition was reported as stable.

In September, a 50-year-old swimmer was killed by a shark at Byron Bay.

While sharks are common off Australia's beaches, fatal attacks are rare.

The country has averaged fewer than two deadly attacks a year in recent decades.