Bull shark looked me straight in the eye before savaging me to the brink of death – it was my worst nightmare

A SURFER has told how a shark looked him in the eye before mauling him to the brink of death.

Brett Connellan was around 100m from the shore of Bombo Beach in Kiama, Australia, when he said his “worst nightmare” came true and he was forced to fight off the mighty beast as it attacked him.

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He was out on his surfboard when suddenly he was thrown into the water and the bull shark sunk its teeth into his leg.

In a new Stan documentary – Attacking Life – Brett has revealed the horrifying details of the ordeal in March 2016.

He said: “The look in the shark’s eyes, in the moment it’s one of the most terrifying things you can look at because it’s not something you can reason with.

“It’s this realisation that my worst nightmare is coming to fruition right in front of me and I can’t do anything about it.

“The most vivid thing I can remember is the touch and feel of the shark’s skin as I’m trying to push it away or hold it at arm’s length.

“It was kind of really rough, which was a strange sensation to remember.

“One of the other things that sticks out to me was the lack of sound. It was like someone completely turned the sound off, there was not even the ringing sound in the background, it was just dead silence.”

After having a huge part of his left thigh ripped off by the shark, it returned to attack the then 22-year-old again.

He said he then attempted to push the shark away before being helped to shore by his friend Joel Trist on his surfboard after he heard Brett’s “blood-curdling scream” for help.

Joel’s now-wife Agie, who was training to be a nurse, quickly performed first aid.

She used a surfboard leg rope as a tourniquet on Brett’s leg to stop the heavy bleeding – saving his life.

Brett, now 29, was told he may never walk again but surgeons fought to save his leg from amputation.

After years of rehabilitation, Brett can now walk again and is even back in the water.

He said: “I never wanted to be defined by the incident, or remembered as the guy who got attacked by a shark.

“I want to be remembered for what I did afterwards.”

It comes after two teenagers were mauled by sharks at the same beach within a 48-hour period.

Both youngsters needed amputations after being brutally attacked at Piedade Beach in the Brazilian city of Jaboatao dos Guararapes.

Meanwhile, a teenage girl was mauled to death by a shark after jumping off her jet ski into a river.

Stella Berry, 16, a schoolgirl from Perth, was swimming in the Swan River when she was fatally attacked by a shark in front of her friends.

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