14-year-old boy attacked by shark at lifeguard camp in Florida

A 14-year-old boy was attacked by a shark during a lifeguard training camp in Florida this week.

The incident occurred around 11:15 a.m. Monday in Ponce Inlet in Volusia County when the boy jumped into the water and landed on the shark.

The boy was bitten on the right calf and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that required stitches, Volusia County Beach Safety said Tuesday.

Witnesses reported that the shark was a blacktip shark.

Jenkins said two other people were attacked by sharks in the area last week. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, there were more than 100 confirmed shark attacks worldwide in 2023, with the death toll higher than the average for the past five years.

Nearly half of the attacks in the United States occurred in Florida, where Volusia County is called the “shark bite capital of the world.”

At the end of June, professional surfer and actor Tamayo Perry died in a shark attack off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

On July 4, four separate shark attacks were reported off the coast of South Padre Island, Texas.