Champion Bodyboarder Killed In Shark Attack

A documentary film crew which was luring sharks with bait in waters off Cape Town has been forced to stop after a champion bodyboarder was killed by a great white.

David Lilienfeld, 20, who lived in the city, was in the water in Gordon's Bay when his leg was bitten off by an animal about 5m (16ft) long, South Africa's National Sea Rescue Institute said.

"There are no other bite marks or lacerations on the deceased man's body - only the complete amputation of the right leg and the leg has not been recovered," it said.

Mr Lilienfeld had represented his country at bodyboarding and had been in the water with his brother Gustav and friends.

The attack occurred on an isolated beach which is popular with surfers. The area, southeast of the South African city, has since been closed.

Mr Lilienfield's friends and family have been offered counselling after witnessing the attack.

Following the death, the government cancelled a permit that had allowed a research film crew to throw fish and blood into the water to attract sharks, a practice known as chumming.

Critics had said the chumming could attract sharks to popular beaches, but the government's department of environmental affairs had said the researchers were working too far from shore for it to be a threat.

Spokesman Zolile Nqayi said the permit was withdrawn to calm panic among the public, not because officials believed the chumming was linked to the shark attack.

It is the second fatal shark attack in the waters off South Africa this year.

In January, a swimmer was killed in the rural Eastern Cape in an area which is one of the world's deadliest for shark attacks.

And in January 2010, a Zimbabwean man was eaten by a great white described by witnesses as "longer than a minibus" in the Fish Hoek area of False Bay.