One witness was so shocked by a shark attack in the ocean near Oak Island, North Carolina, that she thought it was a movie, and another noted that the creature literally jumped out of the water to bite off a boy’s entire arm with one, swift chomp.
North Carolina is reeling on Monday from two shark attacks that occurred only about an hour and a half apart by very large sharks that maimed two teenagers who were swimming in shallow water just off the beach.
Two children, a 12-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, lost arms and sustained other injuries from separate shark attacks that occurred about two miles apart in the late afternoon on Sunday.
A witness who saw the boy’s injury occur said that the shark jumped right out of the water and attacked.
“He looked like he was waving at his friends,” witness Randy Milligan told the media. “Then the shark just came out of the water and like you snap your fingers–bit his whole arm off.”
The teenager lost his arm just below the shoulder, authorities have reported.
The Associated Press reported that some witness likened the attacks to a scene in a movie.
“It was so much like a scene from Jaws,” witness Brenda Bouser said of the attack on the unidentified girl.
Details about the attack on the 12-year-old girl have not been made public other than the facts that she lost her arm at the elbow and that she sustained serious injuries to her leg.
Both victims’s lives were saved by quick-thinking bystanders who acted to staunch the flow of blood and helped to stabilize the children before first responders arrived on the scene.
Neither have been identified publicly, as their families are dealing with the tragedies.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.