Surfer’s gruesome last moments as shark bit both his legs off as he floated on board

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT A 41-year-old surfer from Japan was killed in a shark attack near Ballina on the New South Wales north coast

A 41-year-old man suffered grim last moments after a “very large” shark severed both of his legs as people on the beach watched on in horror.

The Japanese surfer, Tadashi Nakahara, 41, was lying on his surfboard waiting for a wave when the shark struck on an Australian beach in 2016.

Surfer Allan Baldock saw Tadashi sitting on his surfboard about 10m from the beach. “It went whack and he was thrown into the air … it must have been a huge, huge shark,” Baldock told Guardian Australia.

His fellow surfers dragged him to shore and desperately attempted to stop the bleeding using tourniquets and CPR, but tragically nothing worked.

Another surfer, Darren Rodgers who was performing lifesaving efforts, according to SBS, said: “The other two guys were attempting to put leg rope around his injuries like tourniquets, and I started giving him CPR. I was completely unprepared for just how devastating the incident was. I didn’t realise how intimate CPR is.

“I could hear sirens in the background, and after an eternity of breathing and looking into his eyes, I felt like I got a breath from him. The other two had lifted his legs to keep the blood flowing to his heart and his head.

“I yelled at everyone to be quiet and I put my ear to his mouth. I thought I saw his eyes move but the paramedics later told me that was just his brain shutting down, the final stages of passing away. Leaving the scene I was in complete shock.”

The fatal incident occurred at Ballina, New South Wales, just 12 miles from where fellow surfer Jabez Reitman, 35, had been attacked just hours beforehand in February 2015.

It is believed Tadashi was living in the Ballina area, working at a surf shop and as a hotel cleaner, as per abc. David Wright, mayor of Ballina, said: “Because both legs were gone, he bled to death very quickly.”

Shelly Beach, where the fatal attack took place, was subsequently closed, along with a broader stretch of coastline, as authorities launched a search for the shark.

The mayor said: “Some surfers were out on their boards … and during that time a shark has come up behind a board paddler who was just sitting on his board and it’s taken the back of the board and part of the gentleman.

“His mates quickly pulled him in and they tried to do resuscitation but he died. They tried everything they could but he was deceased.

“It’s a terrible tragedy. He’s a local man of Japanese origin. It hurts. Everyone in town is just dumbfounded. This shark is just cruising around. I’m a supporter of sharks but something has to be done about this one.”

Just hours beforehand, another surfer was attacked just moments down the coast. Recounting his own ordeal on nearby Seven Mile Beach, surfer Jabez Reitman said: “I just freaked out.

“I thought it was a dolphin at first until I started feeling and realized it was pretty significant lacerations.”

Reitman had been surfing off Seven Mile Beach, near the popular tourist destination of Byron Bay, when he was bitten by what he described as a 2-to-3-metre shark. “I should’ve stayed in bed,” he said of his decision to go surfing.

Reitman was then transferred from Byron Bay to Gold Coast University Hospital, where his condition was reported as stable. Ballina’s mayor, Wright, suggested the two incidents were likely connected, given how similar and close together they were.

However, he noted that locals, while subdued, were not unduly alarmed.

“It’s just an accident,” Wright said. In September, a 50-year-old swimmer lost their life in a shark attack at Byron Bay.

While sharks are frequently spotted off Australia’s coastlines, and this was the sixth in two months, fatal encounters remain uncommon; the country has recorded an average of fewer than two deadly attacks annually over recent decades.