A 14-year-old New Zealand girl escaped serious injury in a shark attack by furiously beating the creature about the head with her body board until it let go, it was reported Tuesday. Lydia Ward said she was in waist-deep water near the southern city of Invercargill when the shark lunged at her and wrapped its jaws around her hip. She told Radio New Zealand she bashed the "big, grey, slippery thing" with her polystyrene body board and fled from the water when it let go.

Teen beats off shark attack. (2010, February 4). Manila Bulletin, p. 14.