‘It was like fighting a dinosaur’: Sydney shark attack survivor recalls left hook that helped save her life

Leah Stewart with her daughter. She was attacked by a shark at Sydney's Coogee beach in June. Photograph: Gofundme

An Australian woman who lost an arm after a shark attack at a Sydney beach has described delivering a “left hook” punch to the four-metre great white as its open mouth came within centimetres of her face.

Leah Stewart, 34, a teacher and mother of a one-year-old, was attacked by the shark while on a morning swim at Coogee beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on 13 June.