Multiple people were injured and at least three were bitten by sharks during two separate incidents at beaches in Texas and Florida as Americans celebrated the Fourth of July.
The Florida shark attack occurred at New Smyrna Beach, northwest of Orlando. A 21-year-old man from Ohio was playing football in knee-deep water when a shark bit his right foot, beach safety officials said. Thankfully, the man’s injuries were non-life-threatening, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. No further details were release.
In Texas waters off South Padre Island, a single shark has been blamed for biting two people and injuring two more.
“Details at this time indicate that two people were bitten and two people encountered the shark but were not seriously injured,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wrote in a news release. “The two victims who were bitten were transported to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville where one is being treated and the other has been flown out for further treatment.”
Based on witness reports and images on social media, authorities believe a single shark measuring around 1.8 metres long was responsible for the attacks, Game Warden Capt. Chris Dowdy said.
A video taken by witness Katie McMillan shows the shark’s dorsal fin and tail fin sticking out of the water as it swam along the coast of South Padre Island. The shark appears very close to shore in the video.
Another video showed a group of Good Samaritans pulling a woman from the water and wrapping a tourniquet around her leg after she was bitten. Witness Kyle Jud told NBC News that he saw the woman being pulled from the water and called the scene “horrific.”
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“Beach patrol lifted her up — her calf was just gone, shredded,” he said.
The Good Samaritans who pulled the woman from the water appear to have been two off-duty border patrol agents, according to a Facebook post from the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo Sector. The South Padre Island, where the attacks took place, is just north of a U.S.-Mexico border in east Texas.
The two border agents “pulled the shark attack victim from the water and provided lifesaving aid,” the post reads.
The other bite victim, a man, sustained severe injuries, according to Nikki Soto, the South Padre Island city secretary. The man’s current condition is unknown at this time.
Texas wildlife officials told CNN that, on top of the two people who were bitten, a third person was injured by the shark as they tried to help one of the victims. Officials did not specify how the person was hurt. A fourth person said they felt a shark brush against them while they were in the water.
Nereyda Bazaldua told CNN that her 18-year-old daughter Victoria was one of the victims. Her two teenage daughters were playing on boogie boards in knee-deep water on the beach when they spotted the shark and screamed.
As Victoria came out of the water, Bazaldua said she “could see some blood coming down her leg.”
“The shark pushed into her, five to six of his teeth scratched her leg,” Bazaldua said, adding that the “wounds aren’t deep.”
The mother said the shark “showed up out of nowhere.”
“It wasn’t choppy water, and the seas were calm,” Balzadua told CNN. “We never saw the shark ‘til he was right there with them.”
Texas wildlife officials wrote in the July 4 news release that “shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas.”
“When bites from sharks do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food.”
Capt. Dowdy said the last reported shark attack in the South Padre Island area was five years ago.
Boats, drones and a helicopter were deployed to patrol the beach and officials were eventually successful in leading the shark away from the shore and into deeper water. Further shark sightings in the area have not been reported, though the U.S. Coast Guard has warned people to not go into the water off South Padre Island.
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