Tourist killed in shark attack in waist-high water at South African resort

A tourist has been killed by a great white shark while she was wading in waist-high water in a beach in South Africa.

Kimon Bisogno, 39, was with her family on Plettenberg Bay for the bank holiday weekend when she was dragged out to sea in front of her husband and young child.

The family had travelled 300 miles to the popular resort from their home in Cape Town, where Bisogno and her husband ran a Pizzeria and donated meals to the homeless.

The attack at the popular southern resort is the second fatal attack by a shark in three months.

Bisogno had ventured into the water shortly before 8am for a morning swim and was about 50 metres out when she drifted into a channel of water two metres deep and got attacked, according to Bruce Noble, former NSRI lifeboatman who is now on the Plett Shark Action Committee.

Sea around her ‘turned red’

Onlookers said the sea around her “turned red” as people ashore began screaming.

Rescuers found her body floating about 50 yards out from where she was attacked.

Her body has been handed over to police and forensic pathologists who will carry out a post mortem .

Bisogno, her husband Diego Milesi and five-year-old daughter were staying at the luxury Beacon Isle hotel in Plettenberg Bay for three days to “recharge their batteries”.

An inquest will be held and her family have been offered trauma counselling.

The fatal attack was the second at the same resort in just three months and the third in 11 years.

The Bitou Municipality which manages the beach has shut down the Bay for several days and put up shark signs. It has also instructed life guards to keep tourists out of the water.

Bisogno met her husband Diego on holiday in Ibiza 13 years ago.

The world lost a ‘bright shining light’

Diego said on a Facebook video: “Our love story goes back 13 years. I couldn’t speak English.You couldn’t speak Italian. But we connected through cooking”.

They set up Ferdinando’s Pizza restaurant and takeaway in Cape Town but were both committed to helping out the poor and homeless in with a soup kitchen.

On Monday, Carmin Commins, her close friend, said on Facebook: “I have scrolled through your page over and over again and hoping that it is a mistake.

“I don’t know how the world could let someone like you go too soon but what I do know is that anyone that you met you touched their life with your love.

“The world truly lost a bright shining light and pure soul who left happiness, laughter, glitter and kindness where ever you went.

“You were so genuine with so much love in your heart” she said.

Another friend Gabrielle Alberts said: “Such sad news. I will remember your joyous, infectious laugh forever.RIP Kimon – too good for this earth”.