
An Italian man, 20 years old, was attacked by a shark on the beach of Queensland in Australia, as he went in for a swim, not far from the shore. Italian media reports that the young man fought for several minutes with the "beast" of the water, while he also prepared a farewell video, but in the end he realized that he managed to survive, but lost one of his legs.
He recounted his terrifying adventure, which could have taken his life, in the video taken shortly after the attack, in an attempt to say goodbye to his loved ones. "I started this video just moments after the shark attacked me. I wanted to say goodbye. I never thought I would survive that monster. I lost a lot of blood from the bite on my leg. I don't know if they will completely cut me off, but that doesn't matter to me anymore. You are my heroes. You are giving me strength to continue and my dream is to see you again", said the 20-year-old from Parma in a video published on social networks.
Matteo Mariotti has been in Australia since November 2022 after going there to study. On Friday, he was informed that his grandfather had passed away, while he said that to clear his mind, being in a distant place, he decided to swim.
"It was 4:30 p.m. and I had just learned that my grandfather Giovanni had died. I decided to swim and didn't go far from the shore. I took a camera to film, as I always do. Shortly after entering the water, I felt a terrible pain in my leg. It was a shark. I didn't have time to react at all, but I knew immediately that the shark was pulling me, as it does with its prey. At one point, I managed to break away from him and turned on the camera to shoot my farewell from this world. Fortunately, a friend of mine, diving instructor Tommaso Agosti, realized what was happening and came to my rescue by pulling me ashore. He squeezed my leg, from which I was losing a lot of blood. Then the helicopter arrived and the nightmare ended thankfully, albeit with a leg ripped off by the shark. At least I'm alive. My grandfather protected me," the young man told the Italian media.