‘He’s bleeding out! He’s bleeding out!’ Witness tells of harrowing second surfer, 27, was attacked by a shark at Manly Beach

A man who helped save a surfer from a deadly shark attack has relived the moment he stood on the beach and heard people in the water screaming ‘he’s bleeding out’, as the waves turned red with blood.

Max White, a Radio 2GB news reporter, was planning on surfing at Manly Beach just after 6pm on Monday, but two mates he bumped into on the way warned him against it.

Speaking with breakfast host Ben Fordham on Tuesday, he said: ‘I saw two of my mates just hanging out on the promenade, and I walked over and said to them, ‘I’ll go for a surf’.’

‘And they looked at me and started shaking their head, and they said, “No, don’t go out, you’re going to get done by a shark.”

There had already been two shark attacks at Sydney beaches within 48 hours – Nico Antic, 12, was airlifted to hospital on Sunday afternoon with critical leg injuries after he was mauled by a bull shark while rock jumping with mates at Nielsen Park.

Earlier on Monday, an 11-year-old boy had an encounter with another shark which took a large bite out of his surfboard in Dee Why, near Manly in Sydney’s northern suburbs.

About 20 minutes after Mr White had planned to go surfing, two French tourists ran up to him and his mates, screaming because Andre de Ruyter, 27, had been attacked.

‘In the water, in the water, there’s a guy, he’s bleeding out, he’s bleeding out,’ the tourists yelled.

Pictured: Max White, a news reporter at 2GB, who planned to go surfing on Monday in Manly

Pictured: Andre de Ruyter, a musician who was attacked by a shark in Manly

Mr White said: ‘We sort of looked out and… as he sort of went over a wave, you could just see the pool of blood in the water.’ 

‘No matter how murky the water was, the wave was red.’

He recalled two surfers, Eduardo and Ash, paddling Mr de Ruyter, 27, back to the beach.

While his mate grabbed a rope from the car and made a tourniquet for Mr de Ruyter’s leg, Mr White tried to keep him awake.

‘He was still breathing at the time, but he was unconscious,’ he said. 

Emergency services arrived just before 6.30pm and raced Mr de Ruyter to hospital with serious leg injuries, where he remains in a critical condition.

Mr White said he never thought there would be a shark attack at Manly, and that he won’t be going back into the water for a few weeks.

The NSW coast was rocked by a fourth attack on Tuesday, when a 39-year-old man was bitten by a bull shark at Point Plomer, near Port Macquarie.

It’s understood the shark bit through the man’s wetsuit and took a chunk out of his board. He reportedly drove himself to Kempsey District Hospital.

Pictured: A crowd of people at Manly Beach after a 27-year-old was attacked by a shark at Manly Beach on Monday evening

Pictured: A lifeguard placing a sign at Manly Beach, after a man was attacked by a shark

Meanwhile, family friends on Tuesday confirmed Nico Antic’s legs were severely injured in the attack at Nielsen Park on Sunday.

He survived only because one of his five friends jumped in and dragged him onto a rock platform, while the predator swam nearby. 

Loved ones have now confirmed that Nico’s injuries are catastrophic. 

On Tuesday, family friend Victor Pineiro set up a fundraiser to help the family cover expenses.

‘Nico was attacked by a shark on Sunday in Sydney Harbour and sustained life-threatening injuries,’ he said, describing it as the ‘worst possible outcome’. 

Police confirmed he was alive and in hospital, as of Tuesday afternoon. 

Cops have now urged people not to swim in murky, low‑visibility water after bucketing rain drenched Sydney and its surroundings at the weekend.

Extra fresh water in the harbour after recent heavy rain, combined with the splashing effect from people jumping off a rock face, created a ‘perfect storm’ for Sunday’s shark attack, Superintendent Joseph McNulty said.

‘I would recommend not swimming in the harbour or our other river systems across NSW at this time,’ he told reporters before the Dee Why incident was reported.

Heavy swell has also prevented the operation of smart drumlines, which have notified authorities of shark activity along most of the NSW coast since Sunday.