San Francisco bridge jumper says sea lion saved him [1]

A man who jumped off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge [2] in an attempt to take his own life, has told how he survived against all odds after a sea lion kept him afloat until a coastguard arrived.

Kevin Hines, in Australia [3] to speak at several conferences, was a teenager struggling with mental illness and depression when he jumped off the famous bridge in 2000.

He survived the fall, only to see what he thought was a shark beneath him.

"I was freaking out in those waters. And I was thinking I didn't die there and now I am going to die here in the water because of a creature of some sort," he told AFP.

"I really thought it was a shark and I thought it was going to take off a leg and I was panicking.

"And then it just didn't, it just kept circling beneath me. I remember floating atop the water and this thing just bumping me, bumping me up."