Woman, 60, Punches Shark

[Friday The 13th]

An Australian woman has survived being mauled by a shark after she fought back, punching and kicking the two metre-long fish until it let go.

Patricia Trumbull, 60, suffered deep bite wounds on her legs and buttocks during the attack, which took place while she was snorkelling on the popular Whitsunday Islands in Queensland.

"I thought 'this shark's not going to get the better of me' and I started punching it on the nose, punching, punching, punching," she told local media.

"And then it got me under the water, but not much because I started kicking at its neck."

She said she had not been more than 200 metres from shore at the time of the attack, the Brisbane Times reported.

"All I could concentrate on was surviving," she said.

Once the shark, believed to be a reef or bronze whaler shark, had relaxed its grip, Mrs Trumbull was pulled aboard the nearby snorkelling boat and given first aid before being airlifted to a hospital.

She lost several litres of blood and will need to undergo at least five more operations, doctors have said.

"I have to have a new remodelled bottom, so that's a positive," she said.

It is the first shark attack at the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef for 13 years.