French diplomat mauled by shark while kite surfing. A French diplomat working for the European Union in Papua New Guinea was airlifted to Australia on Monday after a shark attacked him when he was kite-surfing off Port Moresby.

Thomas Viot, 30, was bitten by what he believed was a two-metre (6.5 feet) tiger shark at a reef off the PNG capital on Sunday afternoon.

"I managed to ride back with my kite-surf, it was bleeding very badly and I don't know how but I managed to ride back," Viot told AFP from hospital in Port Moresby ahead of being evacuated to Brisbane.

"I lost a lot of blood and the leg needs to have surgery."

The EU economist has been in PNG for two-and-a-half years and said there were always "plenty" of sharks at the reef, but he did not see the creature before it struck.

He vowed to return to kite-surfing once he had recovered.

"It's not my first surfing accident... I got attacked by a stingray at the beginning of the year, and I always go back," he said.

"By a shark, this was the first (attack) and I hope the last."