Shark Attacks Man Off New South Wales Coast

A 65-year-old man has been seriously injured after being mauled by a shark off the coast of Australia.

The man was paddling a surf ski near the New South Wales town of Forster, 300km (185 miles) north of Sydney when the shark attacked.

Police said he fell into the water but managed to get back onto the surf ski and get closer to shore where he was helped from the water by bystanders.

He was flown by helicopter for emergency surgery to a leg injury.

"He has some lacerations just below the calf and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter has come in and taken him to John Hunter Hospital for surgery," Acting Inspector Matthew Hinton of New South Wales State Police said.

A 38-year-old surfer two weeks ago received life-threatening injuries in a shark attack further north up the coast at Port Macquarie.

And a 52-year-old surfer was seriously injured three weeks before that in the same region as he repeatedly punched a shark that mauled him off Evans Head.

That was the 11th attack - including one fatality when a 46-year-old diver was killed off the island state of Tasmania - in five months along a 20-kilometre (12-mile) stretch of northern New South Wales coast.

Earlier in the year, in February, a 41-year-old Japanese tourist was killed around the tourist town of Ballina, also is northern New South Wales.

Sharks are common off Australia's beaches, but fatal attacks are rare.

The country has averaged fewer than two deadly attacks per year in recent decades.