LOS ANGELES (AFP) — An apparent great white shark attacked and killed a 66 year-old man as he swam at a popular beach near San Diego, California, local officials said.

The rare attack took place just after sunrise at Solana Beach north of San Diego and some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Los Angeles, the local sheriff’s office reported.

The shark was “almost certainly” an adult great white shark, said Richard Rosenblatt with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In a televised press conference, Solana Beach Mayor Joe Kellejean said residents were “shocked and dismayed” at the incident.

“Although we don’t want people to panic, we do want them to listen to the public safety officials,” he said.

A friend identified the victim as Dave Martin, a retired veterinarian who had lived in the area since 1970. Local media described him as a triathlete.

“It was typical great white shark behavior to attack from below, make a bite and then draw away,” said Rosenblatt, adding that the animal normally feasts on sea mammals like seals.

Deputy Fire Chief Dismas Abelman said that emergency personnel arrived at the beach as fellow swimmers were pulling Martin from the ocean.

“The victim was dead from an attack from a large marine animal, a shark attack,” said Abelman, who said Martin died as a result of “severe injuries to both legs.”

Rosenblatt, who examined the victim, described the wounds as “quite clean and massive” and believes the shark measured between 3.7 and five meters (12 and 17 feet) long.

Authorities closed off a stretch of some 13 kilometers (eight miles) of beach while helicopters and light aircraft search for the shark, officials said.

Shark attacks along California’s southern coast are rare, but attacks have been reported off beaches in northern California, near San Francisco, where great white sharks are known to feed.

Shark attacks in the United States are more common in the warmer waters off Florida and the southeastern US states.

According to local media, it was the first fatal shark attack in San Diego county in nearly 50 years.