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| January 14, 2010 | 'Dinosaur-sized' shark eats tourist in Cape Town | | London: In a horrific incident, a tourist in South Africa's most popular holiday destination, Cape Town, was eaten by a
'gigantic' shark yesterday. Lloyd Skinner was pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea
by the shark, believed to be a great white, off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town.
And his diving goggles and a dark patch of blood were all that remained in the
water. "Holy shit. We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person
in front of our house. That shark was huge. Like dinosaur huge," the Guardian
quoted witness Gregg Coppen as saying on Twitter. The shocking attack came after
an increase in recent shark sightings and led to calls for an electronic warning
system to alert swimmers. Skinner, 37, a Zimbabwean who lived in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, was standing chest-deep 100 metres from the shore and
adjusting
his goggles when the shark struck. It was seen approaching him twice before he
disappeared in a flurry of thrashing. Cape Town's disaster management services
had issued a warning hours earlier that sharks had been spotted in the water,
but the shark flag was not flying. Witnesses described the terrifying scene. The
shark was "longer than a minibus", Coppen told the Cape Times newspaper. He said:
"It was this giant shadow heading to something colourful. Then it sort of came
out the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see
its whole jaw wrap around the thing which turned out to be a person." According
to reports, Skinner was on holiday in Cape Town for the month to attend the
wedding
of his partner's daughter. His partner was at the beach with him. Four rescue
boats and a helicopter searched in vain for Skinner yesterday and resumed the
hunt today. Ian Klopper, a spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute, said:
"You can rule out any chance of finding him alive. Whether we find body parts,
it's very unlikely. We think the shark took everything." The attack has reportedly
prompted discussions about introducing an electronic detection
system. | |
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