VICTORIA // Authorities in the Seychelles closed down beaches yesterday after a shark savaged a British honeymooner as his newlywed wife watched in horror, in the second fatal attack on a tourist this month.
Ian Redmond, 30, was hauled into a boat and taken to shore following the attack but died from blood loss, police said.
"The shark tore off his arm and bit a part of his left leg," a police statement said.
His wife was on the Anse Lazio beach - a spot hailed for its white sand on the archipelago's Praslin island - and watched helplessly as her husband was mauled by the shark.
"Two people who were on a boat not far from the attack tried to rescue him," the statement added.
Authorities on the Indian Ocean archipelago have ordered fishermen to try to capture the killer shark.
The attack happened on Tuesday afternoon in the same area where a shark attacked and killed a 36-year-old French diver earlier this month.
"It is a rogue shark that has caused a freak accident," Alain St Ange, the Seychelles Tourism Board's director, told the BBC.
"We have now closed the beach, all the surrounding beaches and stopped diving in the area, to ensure we deal with the problem we are facing - and then reopen the beaches after."
Shark attacks are rare in Seychelles, with the last reported fatal attack before the recent killings in 1963, according to the government.
* Agence France-Presse
