ACCORDING TO THE Government, the following event never took place. St Stephen's Beach at Stanley on Saturday, August 11, was like any summer weekend when the temperature soars above 30 degrees centigrade. At about 6pm, hundreds were enjoying the sand and sea when the lifeguard, perched in his tower, suddenly spotted something in the water. He began frantically ringing the shark alarm.
Then, well within the swimming area supposedly protected by the shark net, bathers stared in shock. 'There was a wake, like that made by a boat motor, and then this huge black creature surfaced,' says eyewitness Hau Man-ping. 'It was huge - about 20 feet long and six feet wide.'
People began screaming 'sha yu' (shark). Swimmers desperately scrambled towards the beach and those in deeper water swam for the diving raft. People on land accounted for loved ones and everyone began pointing hysterically at the object. 'The whole beach saw it,' says Mr Hau, a 36-year-old Stanley resident. 'Everybody was scared.'
One elderly man was enjoying a leisurely backstroke and, with his ears underwater, was blissfully unaware of what was happening around him. That was until he swam up on the back of the visiting creature.
'It was unbelievable,' says Mr Hau. The swimmer turned, and when he realised what he had struck, he swam wildly towards the beach. Once safely on the sand, he stood up to run, but collapsed from shock. 'There was no way the lifeguards were going to enter the water but they rushed over and carried him to the first-aid station,' Mr Hau says.
Meanwhile, the pontoon packed with 20 swimmers, according to Mr Hau, resembled a boatload of refugees clinging on for hope. A rowing boat was deployed, and lifeguards ferried them safely to shore in four separate trips, Mr Hau says. The whole incident lasted about 15 minutes, and the creature surfaced about nine times, Mr Hau says. 'It was a big show.'
But the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) insists there had been nothing in the water, treating reports of the incident as if they were an outbreak of hysteria which might have panicked people.