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WARNING: Confronting images
An Italian backpacker has uploaded a bloody video to social media showing the moments after he got bitten by a shark off the coast of Queensland which led to his leg being partially amputated.
Matteo Mariotti, 20, from Parma north of Bologna, said he started filming as he doubted he would survive the mauling.
“I wanted to say goodbye,” he said.
Mr Mariotti was snorkelling at 1770 Beach, 130km south of Gladstone, on Friday when he was attacked.
Talking to Italian newspaper Gazetta di Parma, Mr Mariotti said he had gone to the beach after being informed his grandfather Giovannai had died.
“I needed to relax and I thought about taking a swim not far from the shore, but after a few steps in the water, I felt a terrible pain in a foot”.
It was the beginnings of a horror shark attack.
Mr Mariotti, who has been studying marine biology in Australia since late 2022, said the shark enveloped his whole leg and began dragging him out.
“I tried to widen that big mouth and with difficulty I freed my leg, even though from the knee down I could tell there was nothing left.”
‘Screaming with fear’
He then began swimming frantically back to shore when he began filming.
The filming is understandably erratic with much of it underwater but as Mr Mariotti reaches the beach blood can be seen in the water.
“I was screaming with the fear that the shark could reach me and eat me.
“My friend Tommaso (Agosti), who was on the beach: he was the one who saved me”.
In the confronting footage Mr Agostio, who is a diving instructor, can be seen bringing his friend to land and tending to him as blood pools around.
Mr Mariotti’s wet suit appears to be shredded although, at this point, he still appeared to have both limbs.
“Tommaso carried me on his shoulder to the stretcher and the helicopter took me away immediately: to the hospital in Brisbane,” he told Gazetta di Parma.
In the social media post with the raw footage, Mr Mariotti said: “I lost a lot of blood and my leg, I don’t know if they’ll cut it off entirely or if it will stay in half but it doesn’t matter now.”
Mr Mariotti was inundated with messages including from an amputee who said he has “lived his life like all able bodied people” and drove both a car and a Vespa.
“You have a great life ahead of you, it’s not a missing piece of leg that makes an individual a man.”
Talking to the La Repubblica newspaper, Mr Mariotti’s father Michele said he had spoken to his son and was on his way to Australia.
“We hope it will be possible to save his left knee.
“I will be close to him for the time necessary for treatment in Australia, I think it will take more than a month, then we will return to Italy and here we will carry out everything possible so that he can recover.”
Mr Mariotti’s friends have also launched a fundraiser to help him pay for his recovery.
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