A shark killed an American tourist surfing in western Mexico, police said today, in the third fatal attack worldwide this month.

Adrian Ruiz, 24, of San Fransisco, was bitten on the leg by a grey shark on Monday, opening a 15-inch (38-cm) wound from his hip to his knee and exposing the bone.

Mr Ruiz was surfing near the beach town of Troncones, 22 miles (35 km) north of the Ixtapa holiday resort. He was pulled to the beach by a friend and “rushed in a bystander’s vehicle to the military naval hospital, where he died soon after from blood loss,” a police statement said.

On Friday, a 66-year-old man was attacked and killed by a great white shark in the ocean near San Diego in the United States.

David Martin was the first person to die from a shark attack in the area since 1994.

Earlier this month, an Australian teenager was commended for trying to save his friend from a bullshark attack off the coast of Ballina, about 750km (470 miles) north of Sydney. It was the first such fatality in Australia for two years.

Last year, the only fatal shark attack in the world was in New Caledonia, in the southwest Pacific, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.

There were 71 other reported attacks worldwide last year, up from 63 in 2006.

Mr Martin, a triathlete, bled to death after being bitten on both legs by the 15 ft (4.5 m) shark while swimming with nine fellow triathletes about 150 metres offshore.

Witnesses said the giant shark lifted him out of the water, before retreating after a single bite.

More than 17 miles of coastline was closed over the weekend as San Diego County sheriff’s helicopters patrolled the waters.

Great whites are rare along the Southern California coast, though females sometimes come south from their usual territory in the cooler water of the central and northern coast to pup.

An investigator from the Medical Examiner’s Office says two shark’s tooth fragments were recovered from Mr Martin’s body.

Ralph Collier, a shark expert based in Los Angeles, assisted with the autopsy. He says the fragments indicate the shark was a great white up to to 16 feet (5 meters) long.

No one has been killed by a shark on Mexico’s Pacific coast in over 30 years, according to the museum. Attacks on the Atlantic coast are more frequent, especially in Florida, which has about 25 to 30 a year.