A shark bit an Australian fisherman?s leg so tightly yesterday that fellow fishermen had to cut its head off to free the man. The shark had just been hauled onto a tuna boat which was fishing130 nautical miles off Australia?s northeast coast, when a fisherman stepped on its tail and it bit him.

?He was fishing with a reel off a boat and caught a mako shark?, said Brian Russell from RACQ CareFlight rescue service. ?The shark was three meters in length and 90 kgs in weight. They brought it on deck and the man stepped on its tail. The shark whipped around and latched onto his right calf,? Russell told Reuters.

?They couldn?t release the shark?s jaw, so they had to cut off its head to release the jaws,? he said. The man, who suffered a bite to the bone of his leg, was airlifted to a hospital and is in stable condition.