Teenager fights off shark with board

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A 14-year old New Zealand girl has been praised for fighting off a shark with her boogie board after it had bitten her. The shark bit Lydia Ward on the hip as she was standing in waist-deep water on a beach near the southern New Zealand city of Invercargill on Monday, the Southland Times newspaper reported.

Ward repeatedly hit the shark about the head until it let her go, prompting her mother to praise her calm reaction. "I couldn't believe the lack of fuss. I would've been hysterically screaming but no, there was no screaming. She was just standing there looking a bit shaky," the Southland Times reported her mother Fiona Ward as saying.

Ward, who was not seriously hurt in the attack, said it still didn't feel like it had actually happened.

"I saw my brother's face and turned to the side and saw this large grey thing in the water so I just hit it on the head with a boogie board," Ward said. The shark was estimated to be 1.5 meters (5 feet) long.

(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate, editing by Miral Fahmy)