Beaches off the popular family retreat Wedge Island in Western Australia were closed this weekend after a surfer was reportedly bitten in half by a great white shark.

Benjamin Charles Linden, the 24-year-old victim, was surfing with a friend on Saturday morning when he was attacked and killed.

"There was blood everywhere and a massive, massive white shark circling the body," Matt Holmes, a witness who was jet skiing nearby at the time of the attack, told Sky News. “I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to throw me off."

Holmes said that Linden's body was cut in half.