Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Benjamin Lynch

Two people bitten by sharks on beach on same day as images show horrific injuries

One victim required hundreds of stitches as two people were bitten by sharks off the same beach on the same day.

The two victims were bitten in the waters of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina on Thursday, August 19.

Karren Sites, from Pittsburgh, was swimming in shallow water when a shark came up and bit her arm.

She told new outlet WPDE: "I just felt something, I guess, bite me and there was a shark on my arm. I was only in waist-deep water.

"I kept pushing at it to get it off my arm and it did."

Her grandson, eight-year-old Brian, was with her at the time.

Despite the awful injuries, Karren said she was keen on getting back in the water soon (WPDE)
Karren needed surgery after the bloody attack (WPDE)

He said: "I couldn’t even see the shark coming up, but all I saw was the shark jumped up and it didn’t even bite all the way, like I saw the movement of the tail go to the side and then she screamed a little bit and as soon as she touched it, it fell into the water."

Sites went to hospital where she received hundreds of stitches and was forced to undergo surgery.

Another person was attacked later that day "just blocks away" but details of the incident and the identity of the victim have not yet been released.

It is unknown if the same shark or two different ones were responsible for the bites.

The dogged grandmother revealed she would be back in the water as soon as she can be, undeterred by the massive and bloody injury to her arm.

Brian, meanwhile, was less keen.

"I’ll sit on the sand but I ain’t going in the water," he said.

Daniel Abel, a professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University, confirmed to WPDE that the wound was 'very clearly a shark bite' [file photo] (Getty Images)

Daniel Abel, a professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University, confirmed to WPDE that the wound was "very clearly a shark bite."

He added: "My sympathies to the victim that’s a horrendous thing to go through."

There has only been one other shark attack at Myrtle Beach this year with a total of four in South Carolina overall.

Florida is most prone to unprovoked shark attacks in the US, far outstripping anywhere else in the country.

The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File said: "Florida has topped global charts in the number of shark bites, and this trend continued in 2021.

"Florida’s 28 cases represent 60 per cent of the U.S. total and 38 per cent of unprovoked bites worldwide."

Just one area in the state, Volusia County, had 17 attacks in 2021 which was higher than California, North Carolina and South Carolina and Hawaii combined.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.