A single shark is believed to have left four people injured off the coast of Texas in a rare Fourth of July event. Police in South Padre Island, a beach town on the barrier island of the same name just north of the US-Mexico border, were called about "a severe shark bite to the leg" along Beach Access 14 at 11am. The male victim was taken to a hospital, while a second person was reported to have minor injuries that did not require emergency care, NBC News reports. Within two hours, police received a second call stating two people had been bitten by what is believed to be the same shark. Both were taken to a hospital. Fire Chief Jim Pigg said the shark was later "pushed out to deeper water."
Pigg said the two shark bite incidents are "unprecedented here on South Padre Island." Up until Thursday, there had been fewer than 10 shark bites reported in Texas since 2012, per CNN. One witness, who recorded video of a shark swimming in the waves as a boat and helicopter patrolled nearby, said a woman was taken from the beach in a terrible state. "Her calf was just gone, shredded," the man tells NBC. Another woman, 18, suffered minor injuries to her leg after the shark nudged her and "five to six of his teeth scratched her leg," her mother tells CNN.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department stressed "shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas" and bites are "usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food." It's unclear what species of shark was involved. Pigg said the shark—about six feet long, per Fox News—wasn't seen again after it was moved to deeper water. Still, beachgoers were warned to stay out of the water or to go no further than knee-deep. Also Thursday, a 21-year-old man was bitten by a shark off New Smyrna Beach, Florida, per NBC. The man from Ohio, bitten on the foot around 4pm, had been playing football in only knee-deep water, CNN reports. He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. (More shark attack stories.)
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