OAK ISLAND, N.C.—Local authorities defended their response Monday after two young people lost limbs in separate, life-threatening shark attacks in the same beach town in North Carolina.
A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado lost his left arm about an hour later and 2 miles away late Sunday afternoon.
Both had been bathing about 20 yards offshore, in waist-deep water. Authorities said they don’t know whether the same shark was responsible.
“We moved very quickly yesterday after the first attack. We were trying to get people on the beach with megaphones and ATVs to warn people to get out of the water,” Oak Island City Manager Tim Holloman said at a news conference.
Witnesses described a frightening and chaotic scene as the attacks disrupted one of the first busy weekends since public schools let out for the summer.
