Two Russians and a French sailor were rescued in the Coral Sea on Wednesday after sharks attacked and tore chunks of their inflatable boat.

A cargo ship, the vehicle transporter Dugong Ace, detected the distress signal activated by the sailors and approached the damaged catamaran in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Footage shot by a rescue helicopter shows the catamaran bobbing in calm seas some 800 kilometers southeast of Cairns, Australia as the ship plucked the three men from their catamaran.

"Both hulls of the vessel have been damaged following several shark attacks," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.

AMSA said the trio were sailing from the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu to the city of Cairns, a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers.

The men would be dropped in Brisbane by Thursday, according to AMSA, CNN reported.