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A man who beat the odds to survive a great white shark attack said he's feeling so lucky he wants to buy a lottery ticket.
Nat Drummond, 19, experienced Jaws in real life on Sunday (23 October) in Adelaide, Australia when he was kayaking and suddenly attacked by the apex predator.
The shark threw Nat into the water at the Seacliff Surf Lifesaving Club when he was around 700m out to sea while taking part in a competition, the Mirror reports.
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The shark bit through his kayak without issue, throwing the teenager into the water, but against the odds he managed to swim away to the safety of a nearby rescue boat.
As if all this wasn't already impressive enough, the 19-year-old emerged from the water without a scratch.
Nat told Nine News: "I just ripped my leg rope [attached to the ski] off and I swam towards these guys here who were paddling towards me, and then just jumped onto their craft and pulled me out of the water to safety.
"It was an absolute freak accident. One of those one-in-a-million things that happened."
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It was at this point that the 19-year-old joked about his incredible good fortune and suggested that he might capitalise on it.
"I might go and buy a lottery ticket," he added.
While a shark attack would be enough to put most people off going anywhere near the water for life, Nat said it shouldn't put anyone off.
He said: "We were out in pretty deep waters, this shouldn't put other people off."
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The beach was closed by authorities after the attack, and a meeting was scheduled to decide when it would be safe to reopen after the 19-year-old's near-miss.
While shark attacks are feared by many who step foot in the water, they are incredibly rare.
The Florida Museum reports that there were just 84 unprovoked shark attacks between 2013 and 2017.
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Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, said that, generally speaking, sharks have no interest in humans, even when they are nearby in the water.
"We are like helpless little sausages floating around in the water," he said, as per the BBC.
But despite humans being such a potentially easy meal, sharks are reportedly rarely tempted.
He added: "They generally just ignore people. I think if people knew how frequently they were in water with sharks, they would probably be surprised."
Topics: News
Emma Guinness