The best way to defend yourself from a shark attack is to poke them in the eyes and gills, Russian emergency officials warned swimmers in the country's Far East on Thursday.
"If a shark is trying to attack you, fight it off with anything at hand. Aim for the eyes and gills," an emergencies ministry statement said after two shark attacks in the region in 24 hours.
However, the best protection against sharks is not to swim or even step into the water, "especially if there are fresh cuts or lesions on your body," the advice went on.
On Thursday a shark attacked a 16 year old boy near Zheltukhin Island. The teenager suffered injuries to his legs and was taken to a hospital in Vladivostok.
"The young man's flippers and wetsuit saved him from death. Some 20 meters off the coast, the shark grabbed the man's legs, but the wetsuit served as a protective covering," doctors said.
On Wednesday afternoon, a 25-year-old man lost both hands during a shark attack in Telyakovsky Bay near the village of Vityaz in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory.
Russian scientists say they are baffled by why the attacks are happening in the Russian Far East, as aggressive sharks are not usually found that far north.
