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Shark panic set in yesterday as swimmers were cleared from the pristine waters of a popular beach following an attack on an unsuspecting bather.
Mike French, 47, was airlifted to hospital with severe injuries after the attack at Kina Beach at the top of the South Island.
The 47-year-old Motueka man was wading in the shallows about 3pm when he felt striking pain in the side. The freak attack left a 10-15cm gash on his back. He told the Nelson Mail the pain, on a scale of one to 10, was "on the 10".
St John advanced paramedic Jo Mulheron treated French in the rescue helicopter during the flight to Nelson Hospital.
"He was swimming in waist-deep water and felt something," she said. "He felt severe back pain, turned around and saw blood before he slumped on to the beach."
Beachgoers called emergency services on their mobile phones.
Mulheron said the victim had not seen what had attacked him.
Police and Department of Conservation staff ordered people from the water amid fears the creature - initially thought to be a shark - would strike again. But a helicopter and beach search found no trace of French's attacker and the beach was reopened.
However, before being taken into surgery, French reportedly told medical staff his injuries were probably caused by a stingray because the gash was straight and not jagged.
Fisherman Matthew Byron-Wood arrived at the beach, between Nelson and Motueka, as French was being patched up by paramedics.
"We came down to go fishing and when we got here they already had the guy up on the beach and they were just starting to put bandages on him," he said. "It's all a bit of a drama. He was badly hurt."
Byron-Wood helped by ushering people away from a makeshift landing site for the rescue helicopter.
"There was no one in the water when we got here, and the police had already been up and down the whole beach and they told everyone to not go swimming.
"There was quite a group, about 12 people, around him. There was a little bit of blood and they put the bandages on him and they had him on a drip on the beach. They gave him something that made him go really quiet - probably morphine."
Byron-Wood had never heard of such an attack in the area and said it would be a while before he ventured back into the water.
Nelson Dawnbreakers Fishing Club captain Doug McKay said he would be surprised if it was a shark attack, although "stranger things have happened".
"Kina is a reasonably shallow beach and with the warm weather the stingrays probably came in to bask on the sand."
Beaches were closed after the attack but have since reopened.
There have been three stingray attacks in the past two months. In January an 11-year-old girl was attacked on the Wairarapa coast, and a man was attacked near Blenheim. In December, a 48-year-old woman was attacked in Golden Bay.
Stingrays generally do not attack but will react if stepped on or startled.
They release a barbed stinger which can inflict serious injuries or even be fatal.
