Riviera shut following shark sightings

French officials have banned swimming off some of the Riviera's best known resorts after several beachgoers reported a rare shark sighting in coastal waters...

Rescuers patrolling aboard an inflatable motorboat spotted a two-metre-long shark with a "stiff dorsal fin, gills and a white underbelly" on Monday, said Michel Gagnaire, head of public safety for the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer near the city of Nice.

Swimming was banned off Cagnes-sur-Mer and the neighbouring communities of Villeneuve-Loubet and Saint-Laurent-du-Var at least for Tuesday.

Shark sightings are rare off France, and attacks even more so.

The Florida Natural History Museum's respected International Shark Attack File said there had been only one fatal attack by a shark in French waters since its records began in 1847.

Mr Gagnaire said, though, that, as the shark was seen in waters only 70 metres off the Coast, it might have been disoriented due to illness or a wound and therefore more likely to attack swimmers.

In July last year, another French Mediterranean beach, at Antibes, was closed after a shark scare, only for authorities to later discover the sighting had been of a large but harmless ocean sunfish, which eats jellyfish.

Source: AFP