Man bitten by shark off California coast

— -- A man who had been spearfishing in the waters off the California coast was bitten by a shark, officials said.

Hearing the call for help from emergency dispatchers Friday afternoon, two off-duty Monterey County deputies, who were fishing at Stillwater Cove, south of San Francisco, sprang into action.

One of the deputies applied a tourniquet to the injured man's leg in an effort to stanch the bleeding, the sheriff's office said.

The victim's condition was not immediately known.

According to the sheriff's office, the man had been spearfishing under the surface of the water when he was attacked.

During a search, a sheriff's office plane spotted a "large aquatic animal off Pescadero Point, which may have been a shark."

Further information was not immediately available.