SYDNEY, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- An emergency search by sea and air is underway for a fisherman believed to have been taken by a shark off Australia's east coast.

Paul Barning was participating in a game fishing tournament off the coast of the city of Newcastle, about 120 km north of Sydney, on Sunday when he fell overboard from a boat at 1 p.m. local time.

Authorities said that Barning became tangled in a fishing line on the boat after hooking a tiger shark, causing him to fall.

Luke Wiseman from the ambulance service in the state of New South Wales (NSW) told Seven Network television on Monday that three men who were also on the boat tried unsuccessfully to rescue him.

The men pulled the tiger shark onto the boat but there was no sign of Barning.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that witnesses saw him dragged underwater by a great white shark.

A multi-agency search by sea and air was launched on Sunday afternoon before being suspended due to bad light. The search resumed on Monday morning.

The incident occurred about 50 km offshore.

Steve Lamond, president of the NSW Game Fishing Association, said that Barning was a "highly experienced" game fisherman and described the incident as "the most unlikely" of circumstances.

More than 80 boats were participating in the annual competition.

Competitors in a separate tournament earlier in February reported encountering several great white sharks in the same waters off the coast of Newcastle. Enditem

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