Distraught parents rushed in vain to save Alysha

Alysha Webster, pictured in 2002, died from extensive injuries after she was mauled by a shark in Vanuatu.

The parents of a young New Zealand girl attacked by a shark in Vanuatu made a frantic journey by boat and truck to a remote island hospital in an effort to save her.

Grant and Sheree Webster were watching 7-year-old Alysha swimming in shallow water off a remote island when she was attacked on Wednesday.

The couple were sitting on a beach on the island of Atchin, about 50m off Malekula Island, when Alysha was taken by a shark in front of them.

The family were on a sailing holiday with Mr Webster's parents and friends, all from the same small Coromandel community of Whenuakite.

Their other children - an older daughter and a younger son - were playing in a canoe nearby.

Local police said Mr Webster saw Alysha go under the water and when she surfaced she cried out.

Her father rushed into the water to try to save her and found her with extensive injuries.

The shark had bitten her left side, taking her leg and causing severe internal damage.

Police said Mr and Mrs Webster used a small boat, understood to be a dinghy from their yacht, to take Alysha to the mainland.

They then flagged down a truck, which drove them to Norsup Hospital about 7km away.

Inspector George Songi of the Lakatoro police said the drive took about 30 minutes.

Alysha suffered severe bleeding and would not have survived long after the attack, he said.

Her distraught parents had spoken to police yesterday at the hospital.

"The other kids were in a canoe," said Mr Songi. "The little girl was swimming not too far from her parents. They were sitting on the beach. All of a sudden the shark came in and attacked."

He said Mr Webster did not see the shark. "The father tried to rescue the daughter but when she came up she had already lost her leg and the side of her stomach."

A French-speaking doctor at the hospital said Alysha was dead when she arrived at the hospital.

She had lost a lot of blood at the beach.

Mr and Mrs Webster flew to Port Vila with their daughter's body yesterday afternoon on a charter flight organised by the New Zealand High Commission.

Corporal Henry Jimmy of the Lakatoro police said the remaining members of the sailing group had taken the yacht to another island.

Paul Willis, New Zealand's High Commissioner in Port Vila, said the family wanted to return home as soon as possible.

He understood that local people were swimming in the same area where the attack took place.

"Sharks are a fact of life in Vanuatu. There are sharks in these waters but many, many people swim around the islands here ... so one has to be pretty unlucky, I think.

"Some areas are known to be more dangerous than others and local custom has it that beaches with black sand seem to attract sharks.

"The rule of thumb has usually been that if you're in one of the more remote areas and locals are swimming at the beach, they probably know what is safe and what isn't. But in this case that wasn't enough."

Journalist Mark Lowen, an expatriate Australian who publishes Port Vila Presse, said local people knew where it was safe to swim.

"There are areas where locals know sharks congregate. It's Malekula where most people are taken by sharks. More people are attacked and killed there than anywhere else."

He said the attacks were often not reported, or reported only in local media.

Department of Conservation shark expert Clint Duffy, who has scuba-dived in Vanuatu, agreed.

He said most attacks occurred in the tropics, where some of the world's most fearsome sharks, including tiger sharks, bull sharks and great whites, trawled the warmer waters.

Tiger sharks were one of the common species likely to be found in the tropics, both in deep water and around reefs and in shallower water.

They were second only to great whites in the number of attacks on humans, could grow up to 6m and had a jaw width of up to 50cm.

"They are designed to feed on whatever they come across, from things like rock lobsters to dolphins, other sharks and turtles," he said.

"They are capable of biting a turtle in half."

The shark that killed Alysha Webster might never be identified, Mr Duffy said.

Long-time Vanuatu diving business owner Kevin Green said the islands were no more dangerous than other Pacific islands.

Also an expatriate Australian, he has dived and taught diving in Vanuatu for around 17 years. A few years ago he ran a shark-feeding and swimming tourism business.

"I never had a problem at all."

Mr Green said some places in Vanuatu had a reputation for being more dangerous than others, including Port Sandwich, where New Zealander Andrea Rush was attacked by a shark in 1992.

Despite a punctured artery in her leg, Ms Rush survived the attack.

Mr Green said at certain times of the year, locals avoided some areas.

"But in some cases it's just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

- additional reporting: Anne Beston, Tony Stickley