Woman who survived horror shark attack reveals terrifying moment she thought she was ‘about to die’
A woman who survived a horrifying shark attack has spoken about the moment she thought she was going to die.
Freediver Anika Craney had been swimming in the water along the Queensland coast in Australia when her terrifying ordeal began.
Anika had been on a private boat named Barefoot - with a documentary film crew - when she took one of the newest member's of the team out into the waters near Fitzroy Island.
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But as soon as she entered the ocean, Anika knew something was off.
"The visibility was really murky, we barely saw little fish beyond our arm's length," she told Channel 4.
"I popped my head up and said 'I'm not really comfortable, I think we should head back to the boat.'"
Anika said she was swimming back to the boat when she saw a shark on the sandy floor.
She had been around sharks before, but there was something about this particular shark that made her feel uncomfortable.
"I noticed as it was swimming towards me, its behaviour was not comfortable to me," she said.
"I looked the shark in the eye and saw it was looking straight at me."
Anika said she moved her fins in front of her body to prepare herself, but she could never have imagined the next few moments.
"I felt the impact, it hit me so fast, I didn't even quite realise what had happened," she recalled.
"I thought it had just hit me with its head so my instant reaction was to kick it off.
"It wasn't until I saw the blood pooling around me that I realised it had bitten me."
Anika explained the moment she thought she was going to die, adding: "I started screaming for help, not just because I was losing a lot of blood but because the shark might come back and bite me again, and if it did I might not survive this.
"... I realised my life was in danger and if I wanted to survive this, I had to give it everything I had to get out of the water.
"... A really loud part of me was thinking the shark was going to come up underneath me and bite me again and that loud part of me thought 'you're about to die.'"
Anika managed to swim closer to shore where two women handed her a paddle board to prop her leg up.
She began kicking for her life until she reached the sand, where onlookers rushed to help her.
Losing a lot of blood, Anika was rushed to hospital via a helicopter where she was given urgent medical attention.
"The shark bit the lower part of my left leg, all the way to the bone. It left a couple of teeth in my tibia and on the way it severed an artery," Anika recalled.
"The wound took two months to heal over."
Anika explained that she returned to the water as soon as she could and also chose to swim with sharks again.
"It was a wonderful way to make peace with the experience," she added.
Topics: Animals, Shark Attacks, World News, Australia, Community
Lucy Devine