Shark Attack Leaves Australian Kitesurfer Dead

An Australian man is dead after being attacked by a large shark in the South Pacific, authorities said Wednesday.

The 50-year-old man was kitesurfing Tuesday in Koumac, New Caldonia, when he fell off his board into a large lagoon and a shark bit his right thigh, according to CBS News.

The man had just arrived in the area Sunday for a 10-day vacation, said Nicolas Renaud, the director of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center. The crew of the sailing yacht that the man had chartered saw the attack and tried to save him, but “it was too late,” Renaud told CBS.

This was the fourth shark attack this year in New Caldonia, a French island territory home to some 275,000 people.