Photo: Eddy Chaussalet’s Sportsperson Facebook page

A surfer was left with serious injuries after he was bitten by a shark earlier this afternoon off the coast of Réunion Island, French magazine Surf Session are reporting. Eddy Chaussalet, 47, was surfing with a couple of bodyboarders around Le Port, at a spot called la Follette, when he was attacked shortly before 3 o’clock.

Chaussalet’s forearm was badly wounded, but the SDIS (Service Départemental d’Incendie et de Secours) says it has not been necessary to amputate the limb, and the injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. A team of doctors and firefighters were quick to administer the appropriate first-aid, before transferring him to the Saint-Denis University Hospital.

Chaussalet is a renowned local surfer, a regular both in competitions and in the line-up at la Follette, one of the island’s premier big-wave spots.

This is the third such attack to occur so far this year in the waters of Réunion, and the 17th since February 2011. In April this year, 13-year old Elio Canestri, one of the island’s most promising young surfers, died from wounds inflicted by what is thought to have been a bull shark. Two months earlier a young woman died of a cardiac arrest after she was attacked whilst swimming on the island’s southeast coast.

We wish Eddy a full and speedy recovery.