Fatal shark attack off San Diego coast

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Updated at 11:49

A 66-year-old man swimming in the ocean off Solana Beach was killed this morning by a shark. The attack took place about 150 yards offshore as the man was swimming with a group training for an event, reports Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

‘They were swimming and the victim apparently yelled ‘Shark,’ or words to that effect, and the witnesses that were in the water apparently saw him actually being lifted out of the water and drug under,” said San Diego County sheriff’s spokesman Phil Brust. “They went to his aid and dragged him onto the beach, where he succumbed to his injuries.”

It’s not clear what kind of shark killed the man. Officials have closed off beaches in Solana Beach and Encinitas as a precaution, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. The Associated Press is reporting that the last fatal shark attack in California took place in 2004, when a great white killed a skin diver off the Mendocino County coast.

-- Jesus Sanchez