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Man killed in Hawaii shark attack was visiting from California

It's the first fatal shark attack in Hawaii since 2015.
Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Editor's note: This story contains graphic details from witnesses. 

A California man who died after being attacked by a shark while swimming in Hawaii was pulled ashore missing a leg, according to a witness.

Shark warning signs were posted Sunday in the Ka'anapali Beach Park area on Maui where the man died a day earlier.

Witness Allison Keller told Hawaii News Now that the man appeared unconscious as rescuers pulled him from the water and performed CPR Saturday morning.

"As we got closer, I saw some blood on his stomach and then I got looking a little bit more and his wrist, it looked like the skin on his wrist was just torn off," Keller said. "And then I got looking closer and his entire left leg from his knee down was just missing."

The victim was 65-year-old Thomas Smiley who was visiting from Granite Bay, California, Maui Police told Hawaii News Now. 

resident of California, according to Hawaii's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement. Officials didn't immediately release his name or say where in California he was from.

The man was swimming about 60 yards from shore when the attack happened, according to authorities.

The last fatal shark attack in Hawaii was in 2015, when a snorkeler off Maui was killed.

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