A 39-year-old woman was killed after she was attacked by a great white shark while swimming in shallow water on a beach in South Africa on Sunday morning.
The woman had been going for an early morning dip when the deadly shark raced out of deep water and launched its vicious attack on her.
She had been swimming at the edge of a group of people who heard her screams as the shark bit into her and then disappeared back into deep water again.
The attack happened at Central Beach in Plettenberg Bay on South Africa's southern Cape coastline just before 8am.
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Rescuers attempted to save the woman as swimmers and surfers cleared the water but her blood-soaked body was found around 50 feet from shore.
Her body has been handed over to forensic pathologists and the police for an inquest docket to be made while her next of kin are all made aware.
Beaches have been shut around Plettenberg Bay following the shocking killing and there are signs warning people to stay out of the water.
An eye witness told rescuers: "It was a bit cloudy but there was some sun out and there were quite a few people taking an early dip as the temperature was quite warm.
"Then I just heard lots of screaming and saw people running out the water. I guessed it was a shark attack but I was quite a way away and then the lifeboat turned up.
"I then heard a woman had been attacked while swimming only two or three waves out so it was quite shallow but it was said nothing could be done to help her".
The victim is from Cape Town and is believed to have been holidaying in the area over the weekend, which is a Bank Holiday in South Africa.
She is the third person to be victim of a vicious great white attack in the area in the past 11 years - with two fatal attacks happening within recent months.
Bitou Municipality Mayor David Swart said: “We have never had a fatality at Plettenberg until 2011 and now we have had three with two in the last three months.
“We are researching into and looking at putting up a shark barrier and increased warning signage and starting our lifeguard’s season a month earlier than usual.
“There seems to be no change in the shark’s behaviour in this area so it is a bit of a mystery why we have had three fatal attacks in such a short space of time.
“Our thoughts go out to the woman and her family at this time” he said.
Just three months ago, on June 28, a 63-year-old stockbroker and married father Bruce Wolov was killed in a violent shark attack in the same area, off the coast of Plettenberg Bay.
And in 2011, surfer Tim Van Heerden was attacked by a Great White Shark while he was out on his board waiting to catch a wave.
He was knocked into the sea and bitten a second time, suffering massive wounds to his groin and upper leg which severed his femoral artery, fatally killing him.
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