A man who was attacked by a shark while swimming near the Russian shores of the Sea of Japan was in stable condition after surgery, a spokesman for the regional center for disaster medicine said on Thursday.
A 25-year-old man lost both hands during a shark attack in Telyakovsky Bay near the village of Vityaz in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory on Wednesday.
“The surgery lasted for several hours. After that, the young man was taken to an intensive care unit,” the source said, adding that the patient’s condition was still serious, but not life-threatening.
A source in the local administration said the authorities prepare to close beaches in the district.
An ichthyologist from the Institute of Marine Biology in the Far East said the shark attack was most likely related to feeding grounds as anchovies move towards shallower waters to warm themselves, though this usually occurs at the beginning of summer.
The only shark species native to the territory is dogfish shark, which have never been recorded to attack humans. However, several white sharks which can be dangerous to humans have been detected in the area in the past few years, including a two-meter white shark caught in 2007.