‘Jaws’ scenes after shark attacks
TWO teenagers lost limbs in separate shark attacks just 30 minutes apart that struck terror into an American seaside town.
In scenes similar to those from the horror film Jaws, authorities raced to get people out of the water at Oak Island, North Carolina, after a shark mauled a girl aged 12 on Sunday.
The girl was airlifted to hospital for urgent treatment, Oak Island mayor Betty Wallace said.
The girl lost part of her left arm and may lose her left leg.
“One of the things we hope we never have to hear from a beach community is the shark victim is a teenage girl,” Wallace said.
The girl was bleeding heavily, and beachgoers applied tourniquets while asking her questions to try to keep her conscious.
“I saw someone carry this girl [out of the water] and people were swarming around and trying to help,” Steve Bouser, who was just beginning his week-long beach holiday, said. “It was quite terrible. “It was so much like a scene from Jaws,” his wife, Brenda, said. Less than 30 minutes later a boy aged 16 was rushed to hospital for treatment. He lost his left arm. The incidents happened just a few kilometres up the coast from Ocean Isle Beach, where a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark last Thursday, suffering lacerations to her right foot.
Red flags have been placed at most beaches in the area.
A helicopter was scouring the waters for the shark.
Wallace said shark encounters were virtually unheard of in the area, adding that a long-time resident could not recall a single one in 36 years.
“I don’t want everybody to think this is one of those areas where you really have to worry about shark bites,” Wallace said.
“But for the foreseeable future, people have to be extra vigilant.” – The Telegraph