A 12-year-old girl (reported by some sites to have just turned 13) lost part of her left arm and could lose her left leg as a result of Sunday’s first strike in North Carolina, USA.
Officials have said that the schoolgirl was about 20 yards from the shore in waist-deep water when she was bitten.
Steve Bouser, who was beginning a week-long holiday in the area, witnessed the incident.
According to The Mirror, he said: "I saw someone carry this girl (out of the water) and people were swarming around and trying to help. It was quite nightmarish."
His wife added: “It was like a scene from Jaws.”
The girl was rushed to hospital, where her left arm was amputated below the elbow.
She also suffered tissue trauma to her her left leg, according to officials at New Hanover Regional Medical Centre, and may also need to have it amputated.
Oak Island Mayor Betty Wallace wrote on Facebook: “Please keep this girl and her family in your prayers.”
One of the things we hope we never have to hear from a beach community; the shark bite victim is a teenage girl. ... > >
Posted by [Mayor Betty Wallace](https://www.facebook.com/MayorBettyWallace) on [Sunday, June 14, 2015](https://www.facebook.com/MayorBettyWallace/posts/816086725126208)
An hour after the girl was rushed from the beach, a 16-year-old boy was also attacked by a shark.
Again, he was 20 yards from the shore and in waist-deep water.
He was airlifted to hospital, where his arm was amputated below the shoulder.
Officials are unsure of what types or size the sharks that bit the victims were.
This is the third reported shark bite in the area within a week; on Thursday, a 13-year-old escaped with cuts on her foot after a shark attacked her boogie board at a nearby beach.
Despite the closeness of the attacks, however, it is worth pointing out that shark attacks are very rare; you have a 1 in 63 chance of dying from the flu and a 1 in 3,700,000 chance of being killed by a shark during your lifetime.
And, for every human killed by a shark, humans kill approximately two million sharks.