British father killed by shark while swimming off coast of Western Australia

It is now extremely unlikely the body of Paul Millachip will be recovered, Dan Rivers reports

A British man has been killed by a shark as he swam in the sea off Australia’s west coast.

A search for Paul Millachip, 57, who went missing while swimming at Port Beach near Perth on Saturday, was called off on Sunday.

The father-of-two, originally from London, was a regular at the beach.

A pair of goggles that are believed to belong to him were recovered.

“He was a wonderful man, a wonderful father, and he loved his exercise" - Paul Millachip's wife pays tribute to him

His wife, who did not wish to be named, told Australian broadcasters: “He was a wonderful man, a wonderful father, and he loved his exercise.”

She thanked teenagers on a nearby boat who helped raise the alarm after witnessing the attack.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Millachip's wife said: “A special mention to those young lads in the boat for what they did in what must have been an absolutely terrifying experience for them, so my heart goes out to them and I thank them for what they did.

“Rest in peace, Paul. He died (doing) what he enjoyed doing the most, which was exercising.

“He was a wonderful man, a wonderful father, and he loved his exercise.”

She added both their families were currently overseas and said she was grateful for the support from her local friends.

“I also just wanted to say thank you to all of our friends here in Perth for all the support and love that you’ve shown us and that’s really appreciated because both of our families are overseas and obviously we’ve been talking to them as well, but it’s hard because they may not be able to travel here to be with us,” she said, adding she was also appreciative for the work of police and other emergency services.

“I wanted to thank also the eyewitnesses, there’s a number of eyewitnesses who have given very, very valuable accounts and that’s helped piece together what’s happened, so we can be very clear that it was actually Paul involved.

“It came out of the blue. But it did happen, you just have to deal with it.”

Police said earlier the attack may have involved more than one shark, but witnesses said it appeared to be a 4 1/2-metre (15-foot) great white.

One witness told The West Australian he watched in horror as the swimmer was “dragged under”.

“I saw the man struggling in the water, and then there was a commotion with a tinny coming over surrounding the guy and that was the last they saw of him,” he said.

“It was big, and it looked like a White.

“After the attack we saw it swing out the water with its fin.

“He was a big one.”

Another witness, Kaiden Boult, told The West Australian he was surfing with his friends when he saw the teenagers in the dinghy “flying at us and scream(ing) at us to get out of the water because there’s been a shark attack”.

He said he saw a “massive shark” just seconds after getting out of the water.

The most recent fatal shark attack in Australia was on September 5 in New South Wales state on the eastern coast.