Video has emerged that appears to show a shark attacking a swimmer off the coast of Manhattan Beach in Southern California in Saturday.
The swimmer, 50-year-old Steven Robles, was bitten in the chest and taken to a hospital. He is expected to recover, according to local media reports.
In the video, posted to YouTube by Loudlabs, people can be heard laughing as the swimmer heads toward the shark.
(WARNING: Some NSFW language below and in the video.)
"There he is, look at him, look at him, right in front of it!" one person can be heard saying to the sounds of several people laughing.
"Did you hear him screaming?" someone says.
"Yeah!" says someone else, to more laughs as the swimmer's screams can be heard in the background.
Then, someone notices the swimmer was bitten, but is dismissed by the others at first.
"No he didn't get bit," someone else says. "He shit his pants right now."
Finally, the group begins to yell "get out of the water," "shark!" and "fucking move it!" as other swimmers race toward the shore.
The shark, a juvenile believed to be about 7 feet long, had been hooked by a fisherman at Manhattan Beach Pier and was on the line when Robles swam by, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“He was trying to get off the line,” Capt. Tracy Lizotte, a Los Angeles County lifeguard, told the newspaper. “He was agitated and was probably biting everything in his way and then the swimmer swam right into the shark's line.”
Robles described the experience to NBC Los Angeles.
"He surfaces to the top, I see him for two seconds and he makes a really sharp turn and comes lunging right at me on my chest," he said. "I had no time to react, it just happened so quick."
He said he grabbed the shark by the nose to break free.
"I mean, I thought that was it. For just a second I thought this was it, I was really scared."
The Times reports that after the shark broke free it was coaxed into deeper waters off shore by authorities.
Robles told NBC Los Angeles that despite the attack, he plans to keep swimming in the ocean. See the full interview below.
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