American surfer injured in shark attack

The Associated Press reports that a shark has injured a 49-year-old American surfer Saturday off the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the third attack in a month.

The Mexican Navy deployed personnel to warn people about sharks at beaches in Zihuatanejo, a resort northwest of Acapulco, according to a Navy official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

He said authorities have not closed beaches in Zihuatanejo, but people were being advised against swimming. A day earlier, a 21-year-old Mexican surfer was killed by a shark off a nearby beach. The attacks came a month after a shark killed a San Francisco man surfing in the same area.

Local Civil Protection director Jaime Vazquez Sobreira said the American attacked Saturday lost his thumb but managed to get to a hospital on his own and was in stable condition.

Last month, a shark killed a 66-year-old swimmer off the coast of Solana Beach. Days later, a San Francisco surfer was killed by a shark in Mexico.

-- Alice Short