Shark attack death: Victim pulled ashore missing a leg, witness says

A beach in Kailua, Hawaii. A man swimming off a beach on Maui, Hawaii has died after a shark attack. Photo / AP

A California man who died after being attacked by a shark while swimming in Hawaii was pulled ashore missing a leg, according to a witness.

Shark warning signs were posted in the Ka'anapali Beach Park area on Maui where the man died a day earlier.

Witness Allison Keller told Hawaii News Now that the man appeared unconscious as rescuers pulled him from the water and performed CPR.

"As we got closer, I saw some blood on his stomach and then I got looking a little bit more and his wrist, it looked like the skin on his wrist was just torn off," Keller said.

"And then I got looking closer and his entire left leg from his knee down was just missing."

The victim was a 65-year-old resident of California, according to Hawaii's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.

Officials didn't immediately release his name or say where in California he was from.

The man was swimming about 55m from shore when the attack happened, according to authorities.

The last fatal shark attack in Hawaii was in 2015, when a snorkeler off Maui was killed.

-AP