‘Sharks’ attack two children near New York
TWO children playing miles apart in the surf along the Fire Island National Seashore in New York suffered puncture wounds to their legs in apparent shark attacks that would mark the state’s first such incidents in 70 years, authorities said.
The victims – a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy – were discharged after emergency medical treatment for their separate injuries, each with a bandaged right leg, and both were expected to recover fully.
What appeared to be a shark’s tooth was extracted from the boy’s leg and will be analysed to determine the species of the creature he encountered while boogieboarding at Atlantique Beach in the town of Islip.
The girl, a middle school student identified as Lola Pollina, said she was standing in waist-deep water on Wednesday at Sailors Haven beach, 2 miles (3km) east of Islip, when she was bitten. “I saw something next to me, and I kind of felt pain, and looked and I saw a fin,” she said, recounting how she realised her leg was “all bloody” as she scurried from the water.
Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare in waters off New York City according to Ian Levine, chief of the
Ocean Beach Fire Department.
He said only about 10 cases of shark bites on people had ever been documented in the state, the last one in 1948.
Neither incident had yet been officially confirmed as a shark attack but Levine added that, “The tooth we pulled out of the kid’s leg looks like a shark’s tooth.”