SYDNEY: Surgeons who used leeches to re-attach the severed hand of an Australian surfer mauled by a great white shark off Sydney's Bondi Beach have hailed the operation as a 'minor miracle'.

Mr Glenn Orgias, 33, almost lost his hand after being savaged by a 2.5m great white in the surf off Bondi on Feb 12 - the second shark attack in Sydney in as many days.

He was rushed to hospital with his hand hanging by a 3cm piece of skin, and plastic surgeon Kevin Ho said he had held little hope it could be re-attached.

'However...his general health and the speed at which he was rushed into the operating theatre, and also the extent of his injuries, made it a possibility that we could re-attach the hand,' he told reporters yesterday.

Using leeches, Dr Ho said, doctors were able to restore blood flow to the injured hand, and he was hopeful Mr Orgias would eventually regain some of its use.

'I thought the hopes for the hand were close to zero but I have hope, in time, that Glenn will have a working hand,' he said.

'We're far from out of the woods but I think for him to make it to this stage is a minor miracle and a reflection of how healthy and physically well he is.'

In a statement released yesterday, Mr Orgias thanked a French surfer who came to his rescue by applying a tourniquet, saying he believed that had saved his life.

'I didn't see the shark, it let me go after three shakes. By some miracle, I made it to the shore,' he said in the statement, reported the Daily Telegraph yesterday.

It was believed to be the first attack in the city's waters by a great white, a species made famous by Steven Spielberg's horror film Jaws.

The authorities said 21 great whites had been caught in nets off Sydney, but with just two caught off Bondi in the past three years, to find one in the city's waters was rare.

The attack on Mr Orgias followed a bull shark strike on a navy diver in Sydney Harbour, just off Garden Island military base.

Able Seaman Paul de Gelder lost a hand and a leg after being bitten by a 3m shark in that attack on Feb 11.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE