Oz woman, 60, survives shark attack by ‘punching, punching, punching’!

MELBOURNE - An Australian woman, who was attacked by a shark in north Queensland, has revealed that her determination to live made her fight and punch the fish on the nose.

The 60-year-old Sydney woman was swimming with her husband near Dent Island in the Whitsunday’s when she was bitten on the buttocks and legs on February 13.

According to Channel 7, the woman said she was determined to live and not let the shark win.

“I thought, this shark is not going to get the better of me,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

“I started punching it on the nose, punching, punching, punching, and then it got me under the water - not much - because I started kicking it on its neck.

“I came back up again and I punched him in the nose, punching, punching, punching,” she revealed.

The women, who was in a serious condition, was staying at the Paradise Bay Resort on Long Island, near Proserpine in north Queensland, and was on a 12m catamaran trip with five other people.

The group was swimming just west of the uninhabited Dent Island near the Whitsunday Passage when the attack by a 1m to 2m reef shark occurred.

A spokesperson for the RACQ-CQ Rescue Helicopter said it is believed she lost several litres of blood in the attack.

The group used clothing, towels and bandages in an attempt to stop the bleeding, and their quick thinking was likely to have saved her life.

RACQ CQ Rescue Helicopter spokesman Phil Dowler said those in the water with her had responded quickly.

“She was bitten on the buttocks and dragged under the water,” Dowler said.

“This is quite a strange incident because normally these type of reef sharks are quite used to snorkellers,” he added.

The woman was raced to Hamilton Island Medical Centre and given a blood transfusion, and later taken by helicopter to Mackay Base Hospital, where she remained in a serious but stable condition last night. (ANI)