Two children have been injured in shark attacks off the coast of Long Island in New York in the first such incidents in the state for 70 years, officials said.
A 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were treated for puncture wounds in separate incidents miles apart along the bay of Fire Island on Wednesday.
A tooth, described as being “consistent with a large fish”, was extracted from the boy’s leg and is being analysed.
Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare in the US state of New York.
The young girl, who was later named as Lola Pollina, said she was standing waist-deep in the cold water and described seeing a fin before returning to the beach to discover “my leg was bloody”.
“I saw something, like, next to me, and I kind of felt pain, and looked and I saw a fin,” she said, adding: “We went to the lifeguards, we ran up to them and they kind of bandaged it.”
She said the shadow in the water appeared to be about 4ft (1.2m) long.
At a press conference following the incidents, chief lifeguard Craig Amarando said that the boy who was also bitten was “a brave boy” who was “very scared”.
He said that his puncture wounds were bandaged immediately, but paramedics then arrived and removed the dressings to view the wounds.
“They confirmed that not only was it a shark bite, but they found one of the teeth still inside the boy.”
Both victims are expected to fully recover.
source: bbc.com