Shocking footage has captured the moment that angry locals went out to sea to capture a monster shark who had attacked a tourist. They took revenge by beating it with bats
Furious locals have managed to track down a deadly shark after it mauled a tourist during a horror attack.
Roberto Carlos Bu Mejía, 38, suffered from multiple gaping wounds after the beast sank its teeth into his ribs in the Caribbean resort town of Tela, Honduras. He also endured injuries to his leg. He was raced to Hospital Tela Integrado for emergency treatment and became the first person to be treated for a shark bite at the facility on October 14. HNC news television said Bu was swimming with a group of people near a dock when he was attacked.
Witness Lizette Arita told the outlet: “I thought he was joking because we were playing on the shore of the beach. Then a wave came in and he started yelling, ‘Help me, help me.’ Then he started hitting it hard and that’s when the animal came up. It was a shark. It wasn’t small. It was super big. We saw its black fin. He started fighting with the animal. Then we started running to the shore, my father yelling, ‘Get out, get out, run.'”
Officials closed off the beach in response to the incident. Fire department spokesperson Sergeant David Velásquez shut down claims that the man was bitten by a crocodile and confirmed that the species involved was a shark. A large manhunt was launched which saw several locals go out to sea in a boat to search for the suspected predator.
They hooked a shark in the water and reeled it in alongside their vessel. One man then repeatedly whacked the animal’s head with a club. In the footage – which the Mirror has chosen not to share – the fishermen were seen dangling bait in the water before hooking what they believed was the responsible shark. They dragged the animal to the surface and positioned it alongside their boat. Later on in the clip, a man whacked a club over the shark’s snout.
The predator attempted to swim away, but the man managed to keep him positioned to the side of the boat and continued to strike it. It remains unclear if the fishermen killed the shark. In response, the mayor’s office of Tela issued a statement advising residents not to enter the sea looking for marine predators.
The National Police said they are constantly monitoring local beaches to ensure another attack does not happen. The beach remained closed to the public the following day. In an update about the victim’s condition, hospital director Sulmi Llegó said the man is stable and said he would be referred to the Hospital Mario Catarino Rivas in San Pedro Sula for reconstructive surgery.
Dr. Zulmy López told HNC: “He is currently out of danger. He had lost a lot of blood and was given a transfusion. He is in the recovery room.” Social media users have since taken to the platform Reddit to discuss what happened. One person said: “The likelihood that that is the same shark is almost nil. They’re a mile out to sea.” Others branded the people who hunted the shark as “morans” and said the shark beating was “sad to watch.”
