A 28-year-old man has had his foot bitten off and a 22-year-old man has suffered severe calf lacerations, after being attacked by a shark at Airlie Beach in Queensland's popular Whitsunday Islands yesterday morning. 

 

The two English tourists were snorkelling a Whitsundays boat with 20 other people when they were attacked, although it is unclear how many were in the water at the time or what the species of shark was.

 

RACQ Rescue Helicopter Service crewman Grant Bollington, was in the chopper that airlifted the men to Mackay Base Hospital, and said the Englishmen were in relatively good spirits despite the attack.