French diplomat mauled by shark while kite surfing
Thomas Viot, 30, was bitten by what he believed was a two-metre (6.5 feet) tiger shark at a reef off the PNG capital on Sunday afternoon.
"I managed to ride back with my kite-surf, it was bleeding very badly and I don't know how but I managed to ride back," Viot told AFP from hospital in Port Moresby ahead of being evacuated to Brisbane.
"I lost a lot of blood and the leg needs to have surgery."
The EU economist has been in PNG for two-and-a-half years and said there were always "plenty" of sharks at the reef, but he did not see the creature before it struck.
He vowed to return to kite-surfing once he had recovered.
"It's not my first surfing accident... I got attacked by a stingray at the beginning of the year, and I always go back," he said.
"By a shark, this was the first (attack) and I hope the last."
