http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24313314/Shark kills triathlete at Calif. beach
Attack happened near Solana Beach in San Diego County, authorities say
MSNBC News Services
updated 11:41 a.m. PT, Fri., April. 25, 2008
SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - A shark attacked and killed a swimmer Friday morning who was training in the ocean off San Diego County with a group of local triathletes, authorities said. The shark was believed to be a great white.
A 66-year-old man was swimming with others at Tide Beach around 7 a.m. when he was attacked, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city Web site.
The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to the Fletcher Cove Park lifeguard station north of San Diego for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said.
According to KNTV, a group of nine swimmers were heading northward in the water when the man was bitten. Other swimmers looked back and saw the man flailing before he was pulled under the water, the spokesman said.
Witnesses said the victim resurfaced screaming. Several other swimmers pulled the man to shore.
The man had a single shark bite across both legs, Solana Beach Deputy Fire Chief Dismas Abelman said.
"It looks like the shark came up, bit him, and swam away," he said.
Swimmers were ordered out of the water for a 17-mile stretch around the attack site and the county Sheriff's Department sent up helicopters to scan the waters for the shark.
"The shark is still in the area. We're sure of that," Mayor Joe Kellejian said.
Solana Beach is 14 miles northwest of San Diego.
Shark attacks are extremely rare. There were 71 confirmed unprovoked cases worldwide last year, up from 63 in 2006, according to the University of Florida. Only one 2007 attack, in the South Pacific, was fatal.
The last fatal shark attack in California, according to data from the state Department of Fish and Game, took place in 2004, when a man skin diving for abalone was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Mendocino County.
