A BRITISH surfer attacked by a great white shark was saved by a doctor who used his surfboard leash as a tourniquet.

Chris Sullivan, 32, was bitten yesterday while surfing near Cape Town, near to where a British tourist survived an attack on his viewing cage by a 20ft great white a week ago.

Mr Sullivan had just arrived in South Africa with Barbara Robinson, his girlfriend. The primary school teachers, from Newquay, Cornwall, were staying with a friend and planning to move to the country if they enjoyed their break.

Last night Mr Sullivan was recovering after surgery to save his leg, which a friend said had been “ripped to shreds right to the bone”.

The couple were visiting Mark Sampson, a comedian from Newquay who now lives in Noordhoek, between Cape Town and Cape Point.

The men and another friend, Keith Lawson, a banker from Edinburgh, went surfing early yesterday, but Mr Sampson’s board snapped and he left the beach. Mr Lawson, 38, said that Mr Sullivan saw the 12ft shark shortly before it attacked.

“It came up slowly and grabbed his leg to taste,” he said. “Luckily, he had wetsuit boots on; his foot was on the shark’s tongue but it probably didn’t like the taste of rubber.

“He saw the shark shortly before it launched itself at his leg. He shoved the board at it and kicked and punched it, he went berserk.”

Mr Sullivan swam 500 yards to the beach and a doctor out walking his dog used the surfboard leash as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

“It’s a half-hour walk down to the surf, the beach is normally empty but the doctor happened to be walking past,” Mr Lawson said. “The rescue helicopter then picked him up.

“He’s suffered multiple lacerations, his calf is ripped to shreds right to the bone, it was hanging off, but no major arteries were damaged and luckily the bone wasn’t broken.”

Mr Sullivan had to have 200 stitches for deep multiple bite wounds on his lower leg and foot at the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic in Plumstead, a suburb of Cape Town.

Sister Barbara Lander, the manager of the casualty department, said: “He’s really lucky to have got away with his life, and still with his leg attached. They are horrific wounds.”

A National Sea Rescue Institute spokesman said: “This is the fifth shark attack we’ve had in this area in two years. Two have been fatal and in another the boy lost his legs.”

The shark that attacked Mark Currie, 32, in a viewing cage a week ago was blamed yesterday for a previous attack on three tourists from Newcastle. Mark Gibson, a financial adviser, Carl Allan, a postman and Grahame Clarke, a welder, all 35, were also lowered into the sea to view sharks while on holiday in Cape Town.

They said an enormous shark had attacked their cage and ripped at the bars. They believe that it was the same shark as that filmed attacking Mr Currie because it had an identical injury on its dorsal fin.

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