Shark attacks on the beaches of Florida and Texas leave several injured over the holiday weekend

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Several people were injured in shark attacks on South Padre Island in Texas, and another was injured during Independence Day celebrations in Florida when a shark bit him on the foot.

Beachgoers who flocked to the beach on South Padre Island, a beach town on the barrier island of the same name in Texas, on July 4, received a horrific surprise when four people encountered a shark and at least two people were bitten in the attacks.

Two of the four victims were bitten by the shark and taken to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville – where one of them is being treated while the other was flown out for further treatment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a press release.

According to officials, the other two encountered the shark but were not seriously injured.

The July 4 attacks on South Padre Island are believed to have been carried out by the same shark. The shark is about 6 feet long, said Chris Dowdy, director of the Texas Division of Wildlife Services. 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 at the scene for minor injuries. CNN Conditions.

Pigg added that the shark involved in the attacks “was at the southern end of the island and was pushed into deeper waters.”

“This is unprecedented here on South Padre Island,” he added.

Police responded to a 911 call at 11 a.m. reporting that a man had “suffered a severe shark bite to the leg,” city spokeswoman Nikki Soto said, according to NBC News, and the victim was taken to a local hospital.

Pigg added that the initial call was about a person who was bitten and another person with minor injuries who did not require emergency care, the outlet reported.

A second 911 call was made that day reporting another shark bite, and two people were subsequently taken to the hospital, Pigg said.

An observer of the shark chaos on July 4 said NBC that he saw a woman being pulled out of the water who apparently had a bite wound on her leg.

“The beach patrol picked her up – her calf was just gone, shredded. Horrible,” said Kyle Jud, 46.

Two off-duty Border Patrol agents in the Laredo sector also said on social media that they pulled one of the victims of a shark attack from the water and provided life-saving assistance.

Nereyda Bazaldua told CNN that her 18-year-old daughter Victoria was one of the four people injured Thursday. Her two daughters were playing on boogie boards in the shallow water when they started screaming “shark!” Victoria emerged from the water with a bloody leg, but fortunately her injuries were not too serious.

“The shark injured them, five or six of its teeth scratched their leg,” said Bazaldua. “The wounds are not deep. We only saw the shark when it was right next to them.”

“The water was not choppy and the sea was calm. He appeared out of nowhere,” she added.

Pigg reportedly added that lifeguards are advising people currently on South Padre Island not to go into the water, or at least not to go deeper than knee-deep.

South Padre Island Beach authorities are also patrolling the shoreline and using drones to try to look for the shark, Soto added.

Also in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a tourist from Ohio was bitten on the right foot by a shark on July 4 while playing football in knee-deep water, local reports say.

The 21-year-old man was taken to hospital, but his injuries are not expected to be life-threatening.

“He had a pretty bad cut, but it didn’t look like it was life-threatening – thank God,” Kristin Mazza, a witness on the beach, told Fox 35. “(He had) a cut on his foot, a lot of blood.”

New Smyrna Beach is located in Volusia County, which recorded the most shark bites in Florida with eight, or 50 percent of the state’s total. According to the International Shark Attack File for 2023, this is the shark attack capital of the world for 2023.

The report examined 120 suspected shark-human interactions around the world last year and found that 69 of them were unprovoked.

The United States was the country with the most interactions, with 36 cases, representing 52 percent of the global total.

16 of the 36 unprovoked attacks in the United States last year occurred in Florida.

The reports came days after another man was bitten by a shark while fishing and left in critical condition.

The man, in his 40s, was on board a boat fishing at the time of the attack and suffered a severe shark bite to his right forearm.