Broome surfer's board bitten in close encounter with shark
A Broome surfer has escaped unharmed after a shark bit his board in waters off Cable Beach on Wednesday morning.
The close encounter comes two weeks after Broome local Charles Cernobori, 59, was fatally mauled by a bull shark while body boarding at the same popular beach.
Cable Beach has been closed following the incident.
It was the first fatal shark attack in 27 years for the region.
WA Police Broome officer in charge Les Andrews said Wednesday's incident occurred around 7am about 50 metres offshore in front of the Surf Life Saving Club.
"The shark has bitten into his surfboard, the teeth gouge marks are in the board," he said.
"The beach is closed to swimming and the first indications from Fisheries based on the bite marks is that the shark is around 1.5 metres long."
Fisheries and WA Police are patrolling the beach.
Surf Life Saving WA tweeted about the incident at 7.23am.
"Public report large unknown species of shark ... surfer not injured," it read.
Heather McNeill is a senior journalist at WAtoday.