S.African swimmer killed by shark

A South African man was killed by a shark at the weekend while swimming at Second Beach in the rural Eastern Cape, one of the world’s deadliest spots for attacks, officials said Monday.

Lungisani Msungubana, 25, from the Transkei region, was bathing in waist-deep water among a crowd of swimmers when the attack took place, said John Costello, local station commander for the National Sea Rescue Institute.

He sustained “multiple traumatic lacerations to his torso, arms and legs” where the shark bit him repeatedly, Costello said.

“At the clinic medical staff declared the man dead after all efforts to save him had been exhausted,” said Costello.

According to national rescue authorities, the beach in the town of Port St Johns is among the world’s deadliest for shark attacks. The beach has now seen six fatalities in six years — three in 2009 alone.

In January last year, a teenage surfer was killed in an attack witnessed by onlookers.

“The Natal Sharks Board are currently carrying out studies in an effort to try to determine why there has been such a… spate of shark incidents in Port St Johns,” said Costello in a statement.