“The two people were in the water surfing or waiting for a wave when the victim was attacked by a shark,” he said.
Mr Cappelluti said two other surfers, one on a jet ski and the other being towed came over to help when they saw a commotion in the water.
He said the man’s friend and the others surfers were not in a position to help and went back to shore and contacted the police.
“No body has been recovered but from eyewitness accounts we presume he has been killed.”
A man who said he had been the person on the jet ski nearby told ABC that he tried to retrieve the man who had been attacked from the water.
“I was towing my mate on the back of the jet ski and in front of us I just saw a guy get attacked by a shark and I just took my mate straight to the shore and went straight out and there was just blood everywhere and a massive, massive white shark circling the body,” he said.
“I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to knock me off and I did another loop and when I came to get back to the body the shark took it.”
Mr Cappelluti said the attack had taken place near a very remote section of the beach and he was not sure if anyone was on the beach at the time.
Manager of the Department of Fisheries Shark Response Unit, Mike Burgess said the search for Mr Linden’s body was continuing this morning.
“We’ll have our fisheries and marine officers on quad bikes and also supported by the Shire of Dandaragan, I believe also DEC are in the area as well doing some searching of the beaches, we’ve also got some of our vessels in position as well this morning,” he said.
“Some operational decisions will be made later on just based on further sightings of sharks in the area.”
The attack is the second fatal shark attack in Western Australia this year.
In March, Busselton man Peter Kurmann was attacked while diving with his brother. Follow WAtoday on Twitter @WAtoday
Views: 0