Woman saved from shark attack by friend who kept punching it

<p>Paramedics were called to Shelly Beach at Port Macquarie, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Sydney, on Saturday morning after the 35-year-old woman was attacked while surfing.</p><p>She was taken to a local hospital with serious leg injuries, but has since been flown to a nearby bigger hospital for surgery.</p><p>New South Wales police said the woman and a man were surfing when she was bitten on the right calf and the back of her thigh. Her friend then punched the estimated three-metre (10-foot) shark until it released her.</p><p>Surf Life Saving chief executive Steven Pearce said there had been some "really serious and tragic shark encounters over the past couple of months along the coastline".</p><p>"So to paddle out of your own safety zone, into an area where you know there is a large shark, I think is amazing... a tremendous act of bravery," he said.</p><p>Beaches in Port Macquarie have been closed for 24 hours as authorities attempt to track the shark.</p><p>There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in 2020 - higher than the country's average of three deadly attacks a year.</p>