A teenager is recovering after being attacked by a shark off the North Carolina coast Sunday afternoon, injuring his right leg.
North Topsail Beach Police Chief William Younginer told Fox News Digital that police rushed to the scene where 14-year-old Blaine Brown of Onslow County had been bitten.
“I responded to an emergency on the beach. [police] board member [also] “We had an escape,” he said. “We had a 14-year-old male who was bitten by a shark.”
The attack happened around 12:30 p.m. on North Topsail Beach near Beach Access No. 4 in Onslow County.
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“I heard a big commotion and everyone was yelling, ‘Get out of the water! It’s a shark! It’s a shark!'” witness Chasty Keeter told WRAL-TV. “It was really scary.”
Brown was reportedly visiting from West Virginia.
A teenager was bitten by a shark over the weekend on Topsail Island, North Carolina. (Logan Silas/AFP via Getty Images)
“I was in the water screaming for help,” Brown told WWAY-TV3. “Everyone looked at me and thought I was just screaming. I didn’t know it was a shark that bit me. I was so scared.”
The shark bit Brown twice, once on the leg and again on the ankle.
Luckily, two police officers and a paramedic were already on scene following an earlier, unrelated call for help.
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“Someone by and his team pulled him out and wrapped him in a towel to stop the bleeding, which is the right thing to do,” Younginer said. [exactly] What should they have done?”
A tiger shark swims in the Atlantic Ocean. (Reinhard Dirschaer/Ulstein Bild via Getty Images)
Two officers applied a tourniquet to Brown and he was transported to nearby Camp Lejeune Naval Medical Center, where he is recovering from his injuries.
Younginer said shark attacks are extremely rare in the area.
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“You step on a stingray or something like that, [a shark attack]”I’ve been here since 2018 and I’ve never been bitten by a shark,” he said.
Younginer said Brown is expected to be released from the hospital soon.
