'I lured the shark towards me'

2006-08-15 09:21

Cape Town - Lifeguard Achmat Hassiem, whose foot was bitten off by a shark, deliberately attracted the predator to save his brother, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Monday, Hassiem, 24, said he saw the shark swimming towards Taariq, 17, during a lifeguard training exercise in the water off Sunrise Beach, Muizenberg, on Sunday.

"It was going for my brother. I shouted: "Taariq! Shark!" and then started splashing about in the water so that I would attract the shark to me," said Hassiem.

"The shark turned around and came towards me. It grabbed my ankle and shook me, then pulled me under water. I thought the game was over.

"But as I went down, I told myself, 'No, you're not going to die now', and I started kicking it.

'They saved my life'

"It had my right leg and I kicked at its head with my left leg," Hassiem said.

"I don't know how many times I kicked it, maybe four times. But I needed to get breath, I could feel I had already taken in seawater. And then it let go.

"As I came up I saw my brother's hand in the water and grabbed it.

"I looked back and saw the shark coming towards me for a second time, but the guys in the boat pulled me in before he got to me. They saved my life."

Hassiem was rushed to shore and airlifted to Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic where he had emergency surgery to his leg. He is out of intensive care but will have further surgery on Tuesday.

"I don't know how to describe what it was like," he said.

"You don't feel pain. It had my leg in its mouth but I did not feel pain. It was just, I don't know, just this brute power, this massive brute force against me, against nothing."

Hassiem is keen to go back to being a lifeguard, but knows it will be hard to train again, having to learn to swim without his foot.

"I want to go back. I'm being as brave as I can. But I struggle to sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see it all again, every detail," he said.

- SAPA