SHARK’S ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1939, Page 5

SHARK’S ATTACK

MAN LOSES A LEG. STRUGGLE IN A CREEK. SYDNEY, December 20. With flesh torn from both legs. Frank Gurran, aged 20, a railway fireman, beat off a shark which had attacked him while he was swimming in a creek at Mackay, Queensland. His right leg was amputated. The shark—a grey nurse type, Bft 6in long—was caught on a hand line within two hours of the attack, but was not killed until 14 shots from a pea rifle had been fired into it. and it had been hit on the head with tin axe.

Gurran and a friend, Arthur Wallace, entered the water at noon. After a few minutes in the water, Wallace climbed on to the bank. Almost immediately he heard Gurran’s cries for help, but did not at first realise what had happened, thinking that Gurran was “skylarking.” The shark seized Gurran’s right leg, but Gurran, struggling violently, kicked it off with his left fool. The shark returned to the attack, ripping the left foot. Gurran, a strong swimmer, was in 12ft of water, and some yards from the bank. Although weak from loss of blood, and suffering severely from shock, he managed to swim to the bank. Wallace helped him ashore, where he collapsed. Gurran showed great fortitude throughout, and jokingly told the ambulance men. “1 have been trying to get leave to go home for Christmas. At any rate I will be off for Christmas now."