A fisherman caught a 60-kilogram shark off the coast of the central province of Binh Dinh early Sunday morning.

Pham Van Dau, 52, of Quy Nhon City was fishing some 300 meters off Quy Nhon beach when he found an alive shark stuck in his net.

The shark was dead by the time Dau managed to pull it ashore.

The shark is around two meters in length, Dau said.

The Vietnamese Institute of Oceanography based in Nha Trang City has bought the carcass of the shark for study.

At least four sharks, one of which weighed more than one ton, were caught in the warm waters of Quy Nhon between February and August 2010.

A series of attacks by unidentified fish, suspected to be sharks, were reported by swimmers on the beach early last year.