South Africa- A great white shark “as big as a helicopter” gobbled up a 77-year-old woman yesterday as she swam off a South African beach, officials and witnesses said.

“All that was left was a little red bathing cap,” said Paul Bennett, one of a dozen witnesses who watched helplessly from shore as the bloody attack unfolded.

The victim, Tyna Webb, a retiree who swam daily off Fish Hoek beach south of Cape Town, was still missing late yesterday after witnesses saw her dragged under the water by the 20-foot beast.

“I saw this huge shark thrashing at something in the water. I thought it was a seal but then saw that it was a lady,” said Bennett. “It left her floating in the water, and there were massive amounts of blood. Then it … came around and its whole mouth came out of the water and it took her down.”

Craid Lambinon of the National Sea Rescue Institute said the shark was likely drawn into shore by a school of small white steenbra fish being released by anglers in the area where Webb was swimming.

“The shark is bigger than a helicopter. It is huge,” said Lambinon, adding that rescue crews spotted it swimming in the area after the attack.

Webb’s friends said she had been swimming off Fish Hoek beach every morning for the past seven years.

“She was always very sensible,” Webb’s friend Bryony Whitehead told the Cape Argus newspaper of Cape Town. “But she might have been caught off guard because her favorite stroke was the backstroke.”