Jayne McCubbin,BBC Breakfastand
Angela Ferguson,North West
Chris Murray
Chris Murray, 54, said he managed to fend off the attack
A man has recalled the terrifying moment a great white shark tore into his hand and foot during an attack as he tackled a swimming challenge in Los Angeles.
Chris Murray was in the US for the 20 mile (32 km) endurance swim in darkness across the Catalina Channel when it happened.
The father-of-two said he had set off with a group in the early hours when he suddenly felt a painful bite, with the shark tearing a piece of flesh from his hand before returning to attack his foot.
Mr Murray, a solicitor from Bolton, Greater Manchester, said he managed to fend off the predator before quickly climbing into a nearby support vessel – as the shark circled around to come at him for a third time.
The attack, thought to have involved a juvenile great white which could have been around 4ft (1.2m) in length, took place in the early hours of 30 September.
It left Mr Murray with severe lacerations to his hand and foot, and meant he had to abandon the challenge and be taken for treatment at a local hospital.
The 54-year-old said: “I remember shouting ‘ow’ because it hurt, and then I remember a bit of a wrestle with it and [the support crew] must have thought, oh, he’s just having a bit of a moan about a jellyfish sting, or something.”
He said the shark then came round again and “clamped on my foot, so then it was like a bit of a tug and the only thing I could think of was to kick it with my other foot”.
Getty Images
Great white sharks can be up to 20ft (6m) in length
The shark then moved away and his support crew in a nearby vessel shone a light into the water to check on its whereabouts.
“That illuminated all of the water and then the shark was coming back for its dessert,” he said.
“At that point one of the crew said ‘come in number seven, out you get’ and I had to climb up the ladder.”
Chris Murray
Mr Murray, pictured with his support crew before going into the water
“I don’t see it as being nearly killed. I just think it just had a bit of a nibble on my foot and my hand,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“I was treated on board the support boat and then taken by the LA fire department to shore and transferred to hospital. Swim abandoned. Stitches and glue.”
He said his family were understandably alarmed to receive a call from his coach Tim Denyer although they were quickly reassured to learn he was ok.
Chris Murray
Mr Murray was left with severe lacerations to his hand and foot
Mr Murray said the incident had not put him off from swimming in open water in future and he would simply have to “block out” the harrowing experience.
“The odds of it happening are very small. I think one in 11 million. So I wouldn’t want to put anybody off swimming in the sea,” he said.
He said many people asked him about it “because they do have a natural fear of deep water and what’s in it”.
Chris Murray
The shark attack took place in darkness in this area of open water
Chris Murray
Captain Kevin Bell and crew member Roxy, pictured with Chris Murray and his friend, gold medal-winning track cyclist Jason Queally
In a curious other link to sharks, Mr Murray said he lived just two miles from the birthplace of the late actor Robert Shaw, in Westhoughton.
Shaw’s character, the shark hunter Quint, came to a grizzly end in the famous 1975 Steven Spielberg movie Jaws.
Mr Murray said his encounter with the shark had prompted a few jokes, including a regular comment of “you’re going to need a bigger boat”, in a reference to one of the film’s best-known lines.
And, in an ironic twist, he said his 23-year-old daughter Eleanor had sent him a card before the trip in which she joked “don’t get eaten by a shark”.
