\u201cI saw the shark come out of the water and just the size of it shocked me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept paddling towards her and the shark took her underwater and I was going, \u2018What do I do now?\u2019 A couple of seconds later she popped up again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Verco signalled to lifeguards on the beach with an X sign \u2013 meaning a swimmer was missing or submerged \u2013 and paddled toward her.<\/p>\n
He told the <\/a>Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> he had felt the shark was too big to fight off, but then the woman\u2019s head popped back up, suggesting \u201cthe shark had let go of her\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of the scariest things, not being able to see whether it would come at my board or her again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Verco helped bring the woman back to shore, saying she was trying to cling to his 18-foot board while he paddled.<\/p>\n \u201cShe managed to get hold of the nose of my board but then she was too weak to get onto it,\u201d he told the Telegraph.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started to paddle back but then she went under again. I managed to hold onto her and drag her and we made it in.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Ian Ferguson, a Coogee local and emergency physician, was walking on the promenade with his children when the horror scene unfolded.<\/p>\n He saw a \u201cbig cloud of blood\u201d in the water close to the shore before grabbing shark bite kits and a defibrillator and heading for the sand.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like someone had poured dye into the water,\u201d Dr Ferguson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a massive wound. She had a 30cm bite to her thigh. The tissue had all been ripped off and the bone was visible.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a similar wound to her arm.\u201d<\/p>\n Coogee Surf Lifesaving club president Ben Heenan also paddled out to the woman after hearing screaming and movement in the water.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the adrenaline going it is just what you do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m on a board and she is still in the water, so the focus is just getting her out.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was breathing \u2026 she wasn\u2019t talking but she wasn\u2019t unconscious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started applying appropriate first aid, tourniquets and the like.\u201d<\/p>\n Coogee beach and other beaches in the Waverley and Randwick council areas remain closed on Sunday following the horrifying attack. <\/p>\n It was the fifth shark attack in NSW since September, when Mercury \u201cMerc\u201d Psillakis was killed while surfing in Sydney\u2019s Northern Beaches.<\/p>\n On January 18, 12-year-old Nico Antic died after being attacked in murky waters at Vaucluse\u2019s Jump Rock.<\/p>\n Surfer Andre de Ruyter, 27, lost a leg from an attack in Manly about dusk on January 19.<\/p>\n Dr Chris Pepin-Neff, a shark policy expert at the University of Sydney, said the Coogee attack was \u201cvery, very strange\u201d for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n Based on the cooler 18 degree water temperature, recent shark movements and sightings and the nature of the attack, Dr Pepin-Neff said his educated assumption was the shark was a Great White.<\/p>\n He also noted SMART drumlines were still in place at Coogee beach.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think because the shark nets are out there\u2019s no protection, that isn\u2019t the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Shark nets were removed from the beach about a month and a half ago. Randwick council\u2019s website states \u201cnets are installed at Coogee and Maroubra beaches from 1 September to 30 April, covering most of spring, summer and autumn\u201d.<\/p>\n These nets are not a complete barrier to sharks. At 150m long and 6m deep, with a mesh size of 60cm, they sit about 4m below the surface of the water and within 500m of the shore.<\/p>\n It is understood the swimmer was doing laps between the flags at Coogee when she was attacked.<\/p>\n Randwick and Waverley councils closed all beaches in the city\u2019s east on Saturday and closures continue today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n