An Australian man praised his "heroic" work after saving his wife from a shark attack by directing several punches to the animal to get him to keep his jaws away from her feet.
Police said the couple were surfing on a beach near Port Macquarie, four hours north of Sydney, on Saturday morning, when a shark bitten the wife twice and damaged her right leg.
The police added in a statement that "her companion had to punch the fish several times until it escaped."
Medics treated the 35-year-old wife on the beach before later airlifting her to a large hospital for surgery.
A witness who was skiing in the water nearby when the woman was attacked described the man as a "hero" because he fought off what appeared to be a huge white shark up to three meters long.
"He started laying on the shark and saved his wife´s life. It was really amazing," Jade Tohi told the Daily Telegraph.
But the man, Mark Rapley, played down his efforts, telling the newspaper that he "did what anyone would do at that moment."
Australia is one of the countries with the largest number of shark attacks in the world, and has recorded five fatal attacks since the beginning of the year.
