Sav Marafioti, 17, was dragged under by his leg rope. Photo / Sav Marafioti; Facebook
An Australian teenager who was attacked by a shark at a Perth beach has spoken about the moment he thought he would die.
Sav Marafioti, 17, was surfing at North Beach when a bronze whaler shark snatched him and dragged him off his board and under the water by his leg rope.
"I felt a nudge and thought it was seaweed, put my leg down and felt it again so put it up, but [the shark] grabbed my leg rope and tried to pull me down," he told 9 News.
The terrified teen urgently called for help.
"In the moment, you just think – I'm not going to come out of it alive unless I do something," he said.
"I thought I was going to die, didn't know what to do, I was stressing, screaming and everyone was paddling away from me."
Marafioti told the network he was just 25 metres offshore when he was dragged under, but the quick-thinking teen managed to unstrap his leg rope – abandoning his board – and swim to a friend nearby who helped paddle him to shore.
"I can't explain how it feels to have an animal grab at you – I don't wish it on anyone," he said.
The teenager now has a message for fellow surfers.
"If you see something, doesn't matter if you just think you saw something, better to report it than someone loses a life."
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