Posted by on June 13, 2005 at 15:55:09:
TAEAN (Yonhap) _ A diver's leg was injured in a shark attack yesterday off the west coast of Taean County, South Chungchong Province, maritime police officers said.
The 38-year-old woman, identified only by her family name Lee, was bitten on the knee by a shark while diving for ear shell, and she shouted to her 11 colleagues to swim away from the shark, a witness and emergency worker said.
Lee narrowly managed to escaped from the shark and saved her life.
She was the first person to be attacked by a shark in South Korea since a male diver was bitten to death in 1996. At the time of the attack, Lee was diving at a depth of about 10 meters, about 20 meters away Kaeui Island in the West Sea.
Shortly after the incident, she was conveyed by boat to hospital.
"I felt a hit in the knee, but I can't remember what it was and I did not see it," Lee said.
"According to the triangle shape of the wounds, the attacker would be a 3-meter-long great white shark," shark expert Choi Yoon, a professor at Kunsan National University, said after he saw photographs of her wounds.
Taean maritime police are investigating whether more sharks will appear.