Drunken Australian catches shark with his bare hands

A man who caught a four-foot shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach today said he only did it because he was drunk on vodka.

Bricklayer Phillip Kerkhof was fishing for squid with friends off a jetty at Louth Bay, a town on South Australia state's Eyre Peninsula, on Monday night when he spotted the bronze whaler shark swimming in the shallows, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"I just snuck up behind him, and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," Mr Kerkhof said. "He was just thrashing around in the water ... starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does'," Mr Kerkhof said.

As he wrestled the shark onto the jetty, the shark bit a hole in Kerkhof's jeans but all he suffered was a slight scratch.

Mr Kerkhof said he'd had two meals already from the shark and planned to use the rest in a weekend cookout for friends in the town, which lies about 870 miles west of Sydney.

"It's beautiful mate - restaurant quality," he said.