A 13-year-old girl was rescued from the jaws of a great white shark off the Tasmanian coast yesterday – the third attack in Australian waters in 48 hours.

Hannah Mighall was surfing with her cousin, Syb Mundy, at Binalong Bay on the northeastern coast of Tasmania when she was savaged by the shark, thought to have been up to five metres long (16ft).

Mr Mundy, 33, said that the shark dragged Hannah under the water repeatedly before he was able to reach her. “It had hold of her leg and was just thrashing her about like a rag doll. She was screaming and hitting the shark to try and get it off,” he said.

“It took her under the water a couple of times but she kept her head together. I paddled over and grabbed her. Its head came out of the water – it was huge. I clenched my fist and started punching it and I tried to gouge its eye but it was too big and I couldn’t reach.

“It was like hitting a brick wall, it was that dense. It was huge. It was easily the length of a car. It was just a monster. Finally it let her go and it disappeared. It was a horrible feeling not knowing where it was.”

The shark circled and returned, biting a chunk out of Hannah’s surfboard and dragging her under again. She then resurfaced, probably after the leg rope attaching her to the board snapped. “When she got free I said, ‘You’ve got to get on my back and not let go’,” Mr Mundy said.

“She climbed on my back but there was that much blood in the water I didn’t really know whether she could stay awake. We started paddling. The shark was behind us. Then it was underneath us. We just stopped and tried to face it so we could slap it again.”

Fortunately, the two caught a wave that took them to shore. “I’m not religious but there was a perfect wave that came just in the nick of time that must have been sent by God. We rode the wave to shore. But as I was paddling I looked to the left and the shark started surfing the wave with us. “It’s Hannah who deserves the credit. I didn’t save her, she saved herself. She was so brave in a time when a lot of people would have just packed it in.”

On the beach locals stemmed the blood from Hannah’s leg with a tourniquet. Last night she was in a stable condition in the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Malcolm Mighall, her father, said that her lower right leg had been bitten to the bone. “She is in pretty good spirits although she had trouble sleeping. Every time she shuts her eyes she sees you know what.”

In another attack yesterday a snorkeller suffered 40 puncture wounds after fending off what is thought to have been a bull shark near a boat ramp at the mouth of the Illawarra river, near Wollongong, south of Sydney on the east coast of New South Wales.

Steven Foggarty, 24, said that he saw a dark cloud in the water as he felt a tug on his leg and when he looked down he was bleeding. “I saw the blood all over both feet and had a quick look to make sure both legs were there,” said Mr Foggarty, as he displayed the scratches on his arm and puncture wounds to his leg.

He said that he instinctively punched the animal, forcing it to let go: “I just turned and started swinging. I tried my best anyway, I think I got one on him.”

Mr Foggarty, a docker, hailed a passing boat, which took him to shore, where he was treated by paramedics before being taken to Shellharbour hospital. Beaches along the south coast of New South Wales were closed for several hours while aerial patrols checked the area.

On Sunday a shark, also thought to have been a great white, attacked Jono Beard, 31, at Fingal Head on Australia’s east coast. Mr Beard was on his surfboard 70 metres from shore watching dolphins swim when the fish, about 3.5 metres long, bit him.

Justin Warren, a surfer, watched Mr Beard make it back to shore: “That was the most horrific time, not knowing if he would get hit again.” Shark attacks are rare in Australia. Two people were killed in attacks last year.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Thousands of Tamils dying in 'welfare camp'
• Jackson 'rebuilt his nose before he died'
• Renewed Iran protests crushed by militia