PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. — A swimmer was seriously injured in a shark attack on the central California coast Wednesday, police said.
The attack occurred at midmorning at Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) south of San Francisco, the Pacific Grove Police Department said in a statement.
The swimmer, a man, suffered "significant injuries from the shark bite," and was taken to a hospital, police said. City officials said he had injuries to his stomach and leg.
The victim's identity was not immediately released by authorities, however, his friends told ABC affiliate KSBW 8 the man's name was Steve Bruemmer. Bruemmer is a member of a swimming club that often swims near Lovers Point.
According to KSBW 8, video shown to the station shows good Samaritans rescuing the shark attack victim and starting first aid. According to KSBW 8, two of the three rescuers were a married couple who live in Folsom; the wife is a nurse and the husband is an officer with Sacramento Police Department. A spokesperson for the department confirmed the officer's name as Paul Bandy.
"As a police officer, I respond to emergencies all the time, so I don't think there was ever a question of whether or not we were gonna go. It was just how fast we going to be able to get there," Bandy told KSBW 8.
Bandy and his wife told the station that they cut off Bruemmer's wetsuit and applied tourniquets to his limbs and abdomen to help with the bleeding.
It wasn't immediately clear what age, sex or type of shark attacked. Firefighters deployed a drone to search for the shark, but there were no immediate sightings.
Police said the beach at Lovers Point, on the south end of Monterey Bay, will remain closed until Saturday.
Shark attacks in California are rare. However, Tomas Butterfield, 42, of Sacramento was killed in a shark attack in Morro Bay in central California last Christmas Eve.
It was the only unprovoked fatal shark attack in the United States last year.
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