Photo: BGNES/EPA
An Australian tourist has been killed by a shark in front of horrified witnesses in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
The 59-year-old man was swimming about 150m from shore at a popular beach in Noumea when he was attacked, authorities said.
He was bitten several times, suffered serious wounds to his legs and arms and died at the scene, the Guardian reports.
This is the third shark attack near Chateau Royale Beach in three weeks.
Local media reported that many people were in the water at the time and witnessed the attack, which caused panic to come ashore.
New Caledonia has only 270,000 people, but it ranks 13th in the world for the total number of shark attacks, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History, which has been keeping statistics worldwide since 1958.
