Austrian tourist killed by shark on 'world's deadliest beach'

The 72-year-old man was swimming with other tourists at Port St John's Second Beach in the Eastern Cape when he was snatched by a shark

By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg

3:53PM GMT 23 Mar 2014

A 72-year-old Austrian tourist has become the latest victim of a fatal shark attack at the world's deadliest beach, in South Africa.

The unnamed man was swimming as part of a group of tourists at Second Beach in Port St John's when the shark struck at around 3pm on Saturday.

He was the eight person to be killed at the beach in five years. The average fatality rate for shark attacks in South Africa is one in five but in Port St Johns, all but one shark attack has resulted in death since the spate started in January 2007.

Worldwide, no single other state or country has notched up the same number of deadly shark attacks as Second Beach in the past decade.

Most of the attacks were blamed out by Zambezi or bull sharks, also known as the "pitbulls of the ocean" for their habit of biting and shaking to cause catastrophic injuries.

The last person to fall victim was Fundile Nodumla, 39, from nearby Mthatha, in March last year. He fought off the shark and was pulled out of the water by passersby with injuries to both arms, his chest and stomach.

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