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The swimmer killed today by what witnesses say was a "huge" shark was Adam Strange, an award-winning short film and commercial director, Sky News reports. After the rare attack in New Zealand, police in inflatable boats shot at and hit the shark, which is believed to have been a great white around 14 feet long, but they say it swam away, the New Zealand Herald reports. Citing local reports, TMZ says at least three more sharks were drawn to the initial attack, and the body of one eventually washed up onshore. A fisherman says he saw the shark attack Strange when he was about 650 feet off the popular Muriwai beach near Auckland.
"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," says the fisherman, who saw the shark swim off after a struggle with Strange before returning for a second attack, which attracted the additional sharks. "I yelled at him to swim to the rocks. There was blood everywhere. The water was red. It's pretty scary," he says. Great whites are often seen in New Zealand waters at this time of year, but there have been just 15 fatal attacks recorded since records began in 1837, with the last confirmed one in 1976, reports TVNZ. Strange, 46, was "a glorious father, husband, and friend," says a family statement.
