Woman’s hand severed, two teenagers injured in separate incidents

On Friday, two shark attacks occurred within 90 minutes in Walton County, Florida. A 45-year-old woman and a young woman were seriously injured, and another young woman was seriously wounded.

According to AL.com, Advance/SILive.com’s sister site, the attacks occurred about four miles apart.

The first attack occurred shortly after 1:20 p.m. on a private beach called Watersound, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said, according to AL.com.

South Walton Fire District Fire Chief Ryan Crawford said a 45-year-old woman swimming with her husband “lost her left hand in the attack and suffered ‘significant injuries’ to her abdomen and pelvis. She is in critical condition,” AL.com reported.

The woman was flown by helicopter to a trauma center.

Following that attack, the water was closed to the public with two red flags, but about 90 minutes later – before word could spread that the beaches were closed – “the Sheriff’s Office responded to ‘multiple reports’ of a second attack, this time involving two teenagers in the area of ​​Shoreline Drive. Again, the Sheriff’s Office and fire district personnel arrived on the scene.”

The two teenagers from Mountain Brook, Alabama, were swimming in waist-deep water with a group of friends when they were attacked at Seacrest Beach, AL.com reported.

Crawford said one of the teens required tourniquets to stop bleeding after sustaining injuries to “an upper and lower extremity.” She is also in critical condition.

The other teenager – who has already left the hospital, according to CNN – suffered injuries to her right foot.

The 15-year-olds “were identified by St. Luke’s Episcopal Church as Lulu Gribbin and McCray Faust,” AL.com said.

Although it is currently unclear what species of shark attacked the bathers (or if it was the same shark), a 14-foot-long hammerhead shark was spotted from a boat by Walton County officials on Saturday morning, AL.com reported.

However, this is not uncommon in the waters off Santa Rosa Beach, where the shark was spotted.

Florida is often referred to as the shark attack capital of the world and often ranks at the top of the global list of unprovoked shark attacks, according to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF).