A Zimbabwean man is missing after he was attacked by a shark late on Tuesday
afternoon off Fish Hoek beach in False Bay near Cape Town.

Craig Lambinon, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town's Shark Spotting
Programme, could not confirm an earlier local radio station report which
said the man had been killed. The identity of the man and further details
were not immediately available.

The attack came hours after the City of Cape Town issued a warning about
an increased presence of Great White sharks along the False Bay coastline
between Sunrise Beach and Fish Hoek.

The city’s Shark Spotting Programme said it was normal for sharks to hunt and feed along this stretch of coastline at this time of the year. Until this afternoon's attack, there had been no incidents this summer season and sharks had not been seen to come close to beaches or swimmers.

Shark spotters keep watch for sharks and, through a system of various colour flags, alert swimmers and surfers to the level of visibility.

Sirens are sounded when  a shark is spotted.It was not immediately clear
from the report, if this had happened before the attack.

The city, in a statement, earlier in the day, asked bathers and surfers  along the False Bay coast to be cautious and pay attention to the following:
· To always adhere to the safety warnings of the shark spotters.
· To leave the water immediately when shark spotters sound their alarm to
warn of shark sightings.
· To always exercise extreme caution to avoid increasing the risk of a
shark encounter.

The Shark Spotting Programme was introduced a couple of years
ago to reduce the number of shark attacks and shark encounters at popular
Cape Town beaches. It is been funded by the City of Cape Town’s
Environmental Resource Management Department (R750, 000 over the past two
years) and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF).

For information on recent shark movements in False Bay, visit
www.sharkspotters.org.za <http://www.sharkspotters.org.za>.