British tourists seriously injured in shark attack in Australia named

Two British tourists seriously injured in a shark attack on the north-eastern coast of Australia have been named locally.

Alistair Raddon, 28, from Southampton, had his foot bitten off in the attack and 22-year-old Danny Maggs from Plymouth suffered a deep laceration as the pair were snorkeling off Whitsunday Islands in Queensland.

Both men were taken to hospital and are in a "serious but stable condition".

Tracey Eastwick, Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) operations manager, said: "One of the male patients was attacked first and the shark is believed to have returned and come back and attack the second patient.

"The first patient is 22 years of age and he has a calf injury, a laceration to his calf, his right calf.

"The second patient is 28 years of age and he's received an amputation to his right foot."

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The men were attacked while swimming near Hook Passage, a body of water between Whitsunday Island and Hook Island, which is popular with snorkelers.

After the attack, the men were loaded on to the tour boat they had been travelling on and taken to Airlie Beach, about 680 miles north of Brisbane, before being airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Mackay.

There have been numerous shark attacks in the Whitsunday island group in recent years, including a fatal incident at Cid Harbour involving a 33-year-old man last November.