Watch as the two cooling towers – iconic Cape Town landmarks for over 70 years – are demolished in a few seconds. Filmed from Newlands forest 12 noon on the 22 August 2010

Great White Shark Fish Hoek

A Fish Hoek resident has described how the jaws of a “giant” shark clamped down on a swimmer just metres from other beach-goers.

“Holy sh*t. We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house … That shark was huge. Like dinosaur huge,” Gregg Coppen posted on his Twitter account yesterday.

Witness Tweets shark-attack as it happens.

‘I was floating and I thought the people waving at us were joking’
He witnessed the attack from his home near the beach.

The swimmer, a 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of Congo, on holiday in the country for a month, then disappeared underwater at Fish Hoek beach.

The search was called off as light faded last night and rescuers were expected to continue searching for his body this morning.

Last night the man could not be identified as most of his relatives had not been told about the attack.

His girlfriend who was at the beach with him, had been taken away from the scene and given trauma counselling.

A white flag with a black shark on it was raised
Fish Hoek police station spokesperson, Peter Middleton, said an inquest docket had been opened.

He said he was shocked to hear the attack happened in water about two metres deep.

Kyle Johnston, of Diep River, said he and his friends had been swimming near the man when the shark struck.

“We were swimming only about 15 metres away from the guy. We were at about chest depth and he was a little deeper.

“We looked at the walkway and saw people waving towels at us, then we looked further out to sea and saw what looked like blood, and a man’s leg come up.”

“I was floating and I thought the people waving at us were joking, but then I looked back and saw a fin and blood,” said his friend Dane Leo.

Irishman Denis Lundon, who was on Jager Walk, saw “several bits of fish” that might have been parts of a single shark emerging from the water, then a swimmer being thrust chest-high out of the sea.

“I jumped, waved my hat and roared and screamed at swimmers to get out of the water. I never want to experience this again. I’m going to block it out of my mind,” he said.

“We saw the shark come back twice,” Lundon’s friend Phyllis McCartain, from Arondel in England, said.

“It had the man’s body in its mouth, and his arm was in the air. Then the sea was full of blood.”

Kathy Geldenhuys was sitting on a nearby bench with her husband at the time of the attack. “My husband had just pointed out how far the man was swimming from the other people. He asked what would happen if he was attacked by a shark, because he was so far away. The words were hardly cold when the shark attacked that man. The shark attacked twice; it turned and attacked the man again; I just saw the blood on the water.”

Geldenhuys said she hadn’t seen the shark before it attacked the man. “Only when it was attacking did I see the fin, but then I could see the whole body under the water. It was a very big shark.”

Later, speaking to the Cape Times, Coppen described the shark as being “longer than a minibus and the rubber ducks lifeguards use”.

“It was this giant shadow heading to something colourful. Then it sort of came out the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see it’s whole jaw wrap around the thing which turned out to be a person,” Coppen said.

He then saw people running around on the beach.

The National Sea Rescue Institute’s helicopter duty commander Ian Klopper said a number of witnesses had reported seeing the man about 100 metres from the shore when the shark attacked.

Afterwards his body could not be located and Metro Red Cross Air Mercy Service spokeswoman Vanessa Horn said it appeared the shark had dragged the body with it.

The helicopter had headed towards Kalk Bay as that was the direction the shark had swum in, but it was not spotted. Klopper said aside from the rescue helicopter, four vessels were at sea trying to locate the man’s body and rescuers were also doing patrols on the shoreline.

Shark scientist Alison Kock, speaking at a media briefing at the Fish Hoek Lifesaving Club, said eight sharks had been spotted between Muizenberg and St James last Friday, another eight on Saturday, and one on Sunday.

“We don’t want people to panic,” she said.

“But do be vigilant. We know sharks live here. Don’t swim far out or by yourself, or if there have been lots of fish activity in the area.”

Kock said the shark was very likely a Great White, the most commonly spotted shark in the area.

After a fatal attack at Fish Hoek five years ago, shark spotters were posted on the mountain slopes to look for sharks close to False Bay swimming spots.

At Fish Hoek, flags are raised to indicate whether sharks were spotted.

Fish Hoek Lifesaving spokesman Clive Wakeford said yesterday a black flag, which denotes poor visibility, was flying at the time of the attack.

A white flag with a black shark on it was raised immediately after the attack, and lifeguards began telling people to leave the water and the beach.

Yesterday’s attack happened hours after the city’s disaster risk management centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes warned bathers to be on the look-out for sharks in the Fish Hoek area.

La Colombe at Constantia Uitsig has for the second time walked away with the Prudential Eat Out Restaurant of the Year award.

The annual awards were dished out at a ceremony in Cape Town last night, and the Western Cape emerged as the country’s culinary hub, scooping eight of the top 10 awards.

The Service Award was presented to Rust en Vrede Restaurant in Stellenbosch. Best Bistro went to Cape Town’s Bizerca and Best Country Kitchen was awarded to Mariana’s Deli & Bistro in Stanford.

Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly said: “The awards have brought a new menu of South Africa’s top restaurants and chefs into the spotlight… giving the culinary industry even more reason to celebrate as it prepares for the forthcoming summer season.”

Donnelly said a number of newcomers had “set the pace” for 2010, which was shaping up to be “an exciting gastronomic year”

WEIRD WEATHER: Lightning flashes in the early morning over the Bottelary area in Cape Town. With thunder rolling in and hail falling late on Sunday night one could think they were living in Gauteng – God Forbid!

Milnerton, 20th October, 2009. At 14h20 following an eye-witness account to a radio station of a whale suspected to be beaching at Sunrise Beach, between Milnerton and Bloubergstrand, Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) officials were dispatched to investigate despite suspicions at first that the whale may be mistaken for two old wrecks that are often mistaken as a beached whale at the Spring Low Tide in the same vicinity.

“On arrival on-scene MCM authorities confirmed that a 4.6 metre female Killer Whale (Orca), approximately 3 years old, was beaching on rocks in the shallow surf at Sunrise Beach and NSRI Table Bay, NSRI Melkbosstrand, the Police Dive Unit, the SPCA and Metro Rescue were activated to assist MCM officers on the scene to attempt to move the whale back out to sea.

NSRI rescue craft were launched from NSRI Table Bay and NSRI Melkbosstrand.

Prior to the arrival of the emergency services and the NSRI rescue craft the MCM officials, assisted by members of the public, managed to successfully get the whale back out to sea at approximately 17h00 but an hour later the whale was reported to have beached again at Milnerton Lagoon Beach and MCM were dispatched to assess the situation.

Mike Meyer of MCM assisted by four MCM officers swam the whale back out to sea despite the whales attempts to continue to beach.

Police, the Police Dive Unit, Metro Police, NSRI Table Bay, the SPCA, Nature Conservation, EMT (Emergency Medical Training) and officials from the City of Cape Town stood-by on-scene while MCM monitored the whale swimming parallel to the beach front until after dark and a shore patrol will be conducted again in the morning to assess if the whale has re-beached herself.

Mike Meyer confirmed that the animal appears to have an injury on her head but it is not known if this is contributing to the whale attempting to beach herself.

For the first time last night the new Green Point stadium turned on its lights. And boy did it look sweet!

Who writes these signs? Lets hope they get it right for the World Cup “Foosball” tournament next year!

Ed