December 29, 1997

Cops: Shark Killed Diver

Filed at 7:49 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A Great White shark attacked and killed a diver while his family watched from the shore, police said.

Sunday's attack at Pringle Bay, about 44 miles southeast of Cape Town, triggered a 24-hour search for the body of Ian James Hill, 39. The search was called off Monday because of heavy seas, said police spokesman Sr. Supt. John Sterrenberg.

``People who saw the attack saw Hill standing in the water and then they saw a pool of blood where he had been standing,'' Sterrenberg said.

Witnesses saw a 3-feet-long dorsal fin protruding from the water before the attack, and saw the water turn red in the vicinity where Hill was diving.

Hill's wife Sandra and daughter Charlene, 9, were on the beach when the attacked occurred and were sedated by a doctor afterwards.

The search for Hill produced only his speargun.

Hill, an electrician from Durban, was on holiday in Cape Town with his family.

In another suspected shark attack on Sunday, a surfer at St. Francis Bay about 60 miles west of Port Elizabeth, suffered leg wounds when he was attacked 250 feet from shore, officials said.