Shark bites leg of French tourist in rare New Zealand attack

A French tourist has been bitten by a shark while bodyboarding at a popular surfing beach on New Zealand's South Island.

The woman, in her 20s, suffered a "pretty good gash" on the back of her leg from a "moderate" bite, according to Catlins Surf School owner, Nick Smart.

He said the woman was dragged out of the water by her friends and remained calm after the attack.

"She was conscious the whole time, but had a pretty good gash on her leg. There wasn't a ton of blood, obviously it wasn't an arterial bleed," Mr Smart said.

Smart said he had just finished a surf lesson when the attack happened at Curio Bay.

"I saw somebody running and instantly had a very strong feeling that things were not right," Mr Smart said.

He drove several hundred metres down the beach to where the woman was being dragged from the waves.

He said she had been playing in the surf with her boyfriend and another French couple.

"She handled it really, really well," Mr Smart added.

"She was calm, not at all hysterical. I assured her she wasn't going to die ... She was in a bit of shock."

He said the woman, who had been wearing a wetsuit, was moved to a beach house on a stretcher before being flown about 100 miles (160km) to Dunedin Hospital.

A duty manager at the hospital said the woman remained there in a stable condition and was continuing to have her injuries assessed.

Shark attacks are uncommon in New Zealand, the last fatality being a 47-year-old man who was attacked at popular tourist beach west of Auckland in 2013.

Before that, there had not been a fatal shark attack since 1976.

In 2014 a surfer was bitten three times, reportedly by a great white, while he was surfing at nearby Porpoise Bay, before punching the shark away.

It is a different story in Australia, where authorities are considering a cull of the creatures due to the number of attacks.

Earlier this week, a woman was attacked by a shark off the Atlantic island of Ascension.