'I'm not diving again...'

2004-06-07 10:13

Cape Town - A man who witnessed his friend being attacked by a shark says he's not going to dive again.

"I'm not diving again. I'll sell vegetables, which I did before," said one of four friends who were poaching perlemoen at Pearly Beach last Wednesday.

A shark attacked Nkosinathi Mayaba, 21, while three of them were swimming to shore from Dyer Island.

"I saw it bite his leg... The shark pulled him under the water and then pushed him straight up again, as if he was standing up. His leg was off. Then he was swimming behind me, with blood all around him," said Saider, one of the men who was diving with Mayaba, according to Cape Times.

Lunga Molusi, who acted as lookout for the divers from the beach, said the men were about 400m from the beach when he heard a blood-curdling yell.

He saw a "big fish" jumping out of the water with Mayaba in his jaws. "The fish had him by the waist with his torso and his legs sticking out at the sides."

Captain William Reid said on Monday a body was found on Sunday night, but it had not been identified yet.

Anglers found the body late on Sunday at Quinn Point near Buffelsjag, about 10km from Pearly Beach on the southern coast of the Western Cape.

Reid said body parts were missing, but it was not yet known if it was the body of the missing man. - News24/Sapa/Die Burger

- SAPA