Leaping stingray stabs Florida man near heart

MIAMI - A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, authorities said today, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident recalling the one that killed Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials in Lighthouse Point, about 48km north of Miami, said James Bertakis was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren yesterday when the spotted eagle ray leaped aboard and struck him.

"It's just a real freak thing," Lt Mike Sullivan told Reuters, saying the incident occurred on Florida's Intercoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

"For an 81-year-old man he's in really good shape," Sullivan added, saying Bertakis was expected to make a full recovery after surgery at a local hospital to have the stinger removed from his chest.

Crocodile Hunter Irwin, 44, died when a stingray's stinger punctured his heart off Australia's north coast last month. It was one of only a handful of stingray fatalities on record.

- REUTERS