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Achmat Hassiem, 24, and his brother and fellow lifeguard Taariq, 17, were in the water off False Bay on Sunday when Achmat spotted a shark and yelled to his brother to get into a nearby boat.

"I got in the boat. The shark turned and went straight for my brother," Taariq told the SAPA news agency. "I stuck my hand in the water to see if I could hold him. He grabbed on to my hand. We grabbed him out as fast as possible... His foot was cut clean off."

Achmat was airlifted to a local hospital, having suffered a "complete amputation of his right foot," the National Sea Rescue Institute said. He was in satisfactory condition on Monday.

The young men's father Moegsien Hassiem said Achmat had told him he believed the shark was a great white, which are common in the waters around Cape Town.

"He saw it. He was face to face with it at the bottom (of the sea)," Hassiem said. (via Reuters)

"The shark turned around and came towards me. It grabbed my ankle and shook me, then pulled me under water. I thought the game was over.

"But as I went down, I told myself, 'No, you're not going to die now', and I started kicking it.

'They saved my life'

"It had my right leg and I kicked at its head with my left leg," Hassiem said.

"I don't know how many times I kicked it, maybe four times. But I needed to get breath, I could feel I had already taken in seawater. And then it let go.

"As I came up I saw my brother's hand in the water and grabbed it.

"I looked back and saw the shark coming towards me for a second time, but the guys in the boat pulled me in before he got to me. They saved my life."

Hassiem was rushed to shore and airlifted to Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic where he had emergency surgery to his leg. He is out of intensive care but will have further surgery on Tuesday.

"I don't know how to describe what it was like," he said.

"You don't feel pain. It had my leg in its mouth but I did not feel pain. It was just, I don't know, just this brute power, this massive brute force against me, against nothing."

Hassiem is keen to go back to being a lifeguard, but knows it will be hard to train again, having to learn to swim without his foot.

"I want to go back. I'm being as brave as I can. But I struggle to sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see it all again, every detail," he said. (via News24)

Update July 8, 2007:
Achmat Hassiem, the lifeguard whose foot was bitten off by a great white shark during a life-saving exercise at Sunrise Beach last August, has high hopes of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

"I don't know yet whether I have qualified - my coach, Brian Button, is keeping it a secret - but from my swimming times I know I have one or two events in which I am among the top six in the world," an upbeat Hassiem said.

Hassiem, 25, recently returned from the National Swimming Championships in Durban where he competed against other disabled swimmers and was named "most outstanding swimmer". (via iol)

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