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Multiple people have been injured in shark attacks on South Padre Island in Texas, as well as another injured after a shark bit his foot in Florida, during the Independence Day celebrations.
Beachgoers flocking to the seaside on South Padre Island, a beach town on a barrier island of the same name, in Texas on the Fourth of July were met with a horrific surprise after four people encountered a shark, with at least two people bitten in the attacks.
Two of the four victims were bitten by the shark and were transported to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville – where one of them is being treated, and the other has been flown out for further treatment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a news release.
Officials said that the other two encountered the shark but were not seriously injured.
The attacks on the Fourth of July on South Padre Island are believed to have come from the same shark. The shark is about six feet long, said Chris Dowdy, Texas game warden captain, KSAT reports.
In a separate statement, fire chief Jim Pigg of the South Padre Island Fire Department said three of the victims were hospitalized, and a fourth was treated on scene for minor injuries, CNN states.
Pigg added the shark involved in the attacks “was located at the south end of the island and was pushed out to deeper water.”
“It’s unprecedented here on South Padre Island,” he added.
Police responded to a 911 call at 11am reporting that one man had sustained "a severe shark bite to the leg,” city spokesperson Nikki Soto said, according to NBC News, and the victim was taken to a local hospital.
Pigg added the first call involved one person who had been bitten and another person with minor injuries who did not need emergency care, the outlet reported.
A second 911 call was then placed that day, reporting a further shark bite attack, and two were subsequently taken to hospital, Pigg said.
One onlooker to the July 4 shark chaos told NBC that he saw a woman being pulled from the water who appeared to have a bite injury on her leg.
"Beach patrol lifted her up – her calf was just gone, shredded. Horrific," Kyle Jud, 46, said.
Two off-duty agents from the Border Patrol Laredo Sector also stated on social media that they pulled one of the shark attack victims from the water and provided lifesaving aid.
Nereyda Bazaldua told CNN that her 18-year-old daughter Victoria was one of the four who was injured on Thursday. Her two daughters were in shallow water playing on boogie boards when they began to scream “Shark!” and Victoria emerged out of the water with blood down her leg, but fortunately, her injuries were minor.
“The shark pushed into her, five to six of his teeth scratched her leg,” Bazaldua said. “The wounds aren’t deep. We never saw the shark ‘til he was right there with them.”
“It wasn’t choppy water, and the seas were calm. He showed up out of nowhere,” she added.
Pigg reportedly added that lifeguards were encouraging people currently on South Padre Island to stay out of the water or at least go no further than knee-deep.
South Padre Island Beach authorities have also been patrolling the coastline and using drones to try and watch for the shark, Soto added.
In New Smyrna Beach in Florida, an Ohio tourist was also bitten on his right foot by a shark while playing football in knee-deep water on the Fourth of July, local reports say.
The 21-year-old man was taken to hospital but is thought to have sustained non-life threatening injuries.
“He had a pretty bad cut, but it was looking like it was not life-threatening – thank God,” Kristin Mazza, a witness on the beach, told Fox 35. “[He had a] gash to the foot, lots of blood.”
New Smyrna Beach is in Volusia County, which had the most shark bites in Florida with eight, representing 50 per cent of the state’s total, making it 2023’s shark attack capital of the world, according to the International Shark Attack File for 2023.
The file investigated 120 alleged shark-human interactions worldwide last year and found that 69 were unprovoked.
The United States came out on top as the country where most interactions happened, with 36 cases representing 52 percent of the worldwide total.
Florida was home to 16 of the 36 unprovoked attacks in the US last year.
The reports come days after another man who was fishing was left in critical condition after being bitten by a shark.
The man, who is in his 40s, was on board a boat and fishing at the time of the attack, and suffered a severe shark bite to his right forearm.
