Australian great white shark victim's arm saved

Sydney: An Australian woman attacked by a shark north of Sydney has had surgery to save her arm, as officials on Thursday said a great white was responsible.

Lisa Mondy, 24, was attacked while wakeboarding off Jimmy's Beach at Nelson Bay, about 150 kilometres (94 miles) northeast of Sydney on Wednesday, suffering serious injuries to her upper left arm and neck. 

Mondy's employer, tour operator Frank Future, said doctors had been working to save her arm since she was rushed to the John Hunter Hospital still conscious. 

"After six or seven hours of operation that have basically re-attached quite a number of bits and pieces of her left arm, which is the one that the shoulder apparently took most of the attack," he told ABC Radio 

"They hadn't even began patching up her neck or her face. So they're hoping that today they'll work on other bits of her. But yeah it was a very savage attack." 

A biologist from the New South Wales state government's Shark Attack Response Plan, who studied Mondy's life jacket and wounds, said in a statement that the damage was consistent with a great white shark attack. 

The area is known for tiger and bull sharks, although great whites have been sighted before, with a man attacked by a two-metre great white in December 2007 while surfing at Jimmy's Beach. 

Sharks are common in Australia but fatal attacks are rare, with only 53 deaths in the last half-century, according to the Australian Shark Attack File.