Seychelles shark attack: widow describes ‘awful scream’ in interview

Gemma Redmond remembers her last moments with her husband on their honeymoon, following him being mauled by a shark The widow of a man killed by a shark on their dream honeymoon in the Seychelles has said that her husband had laughed off the dangers of sharks. Gemma Redmond described how she and her husband Ian had gone to the Seychelles partly because they thought the islands were free from dangerous animals. In an interview with the BBC, she said she had asked a receptionist if there were sharks and was told: “No, not in the Seychelles, the Seychelles are very safe waters.” She said: “We didn’t really think that sharks would be in the Seychelles at all. It wasn’t something we were aware of.” Gemma Redmond has also described the moment she heard his “awful scream”. She said she first thought her husband was sneezing as he was snorkelling. But Gemma said she soon realised he was in trouble. She said: “I could see the top of his snorkel because he had a bright orange band around it so I could always follow where he was. “And, all of a sudden, I heard this ‘Help’ and I thought at first he was sneezing. “And then I heard it again – I heard ‘Help’ and the most awful scream. “I can still hear it when I close my eyes.” Redmond said she was sitting with their bag on the beach and her 30-year-old husband had been in the water for 20 minutes when he was attacked. One onlooker described her saying she “still had hope” for her husband while he lay on the sand with terrible injuries after the attack, which happened off Anse Lazio beach on Praslin, the second largest island in the archipelago. Earlier this month, a 36-year-old French tourist was killed by a shark in the same area. Government officials have issued a ban on swimming in certain areas until the killer is captured. Ian Redmond, an IT specialist, was savaged just 10 days after his wedding to primary school teacher Gemma Houghton at St Michael’s Church, in the village of Dalton, Lancashire, just a few hundred yards from the bride’s family home. It is thought that the parents of the couple, from Lancashire, have travelled to the Seychelles following the attack. Police said the incident two weeks ago had been treated as a “freak occurrence”, but the death of Ian Redmond has “changed the whole complexion of things”. Search teams are still trying to find the animal and discover what species it is by examining a tooth they recovered. Until this month the last recorded fatal shark attack in the Seychelles was in 1963. Seychelles Marine life Africa Wildlife Animals guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.