Australian diver says partly swallowed by shark

SYDNEY, Jan 23 (Reuters) An Australian abalone diver today told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest.

The 25-year-old diver said he was underwater off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast today, when the shark attacked.

''He stated that he was head-first into the shark,'' a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.

''When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around,'' the spokeswoman said.

''He believed it was a 3-metre white pointer. He said he fought it off,'' she said.

Attacks by Great White Sharks are usually fatal because of the massive size of the predators, which breed in Australia's cold southern waters, and the sheer force of their bites.

Sharks, including Great Whites, are protected in Australia.

Australia has had a number of shark attacks in the past year.

In December, a surfer off the southern coast survived an attack with minor injuries, while a 15-year-old boy swimming off a remote southwest beach had his leg bitten.

Last January, a scuba diver off the Western Australian city of Perth survived an attack by a Great White after fighting it off with his speargun and then his hands.

A 21-year-old woman died last January after she was attacked by three sharks while swimming off an island on Australia's northeast coast. She lost both forearms and suffered wounds to the legs and torso.

The US state of Florida annually records by far the most shark attacks.

Between 1990 and 2005 there were 341 shark attacks off Florida, according to the US-based International Shark Attack File, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm.

Over the same period, Australia reported 74 attacks, South Africa 72, Brazil 62 and Hawaii 57.

Reuters DKA GC1040