Shark attacks at Surfside: A shark attacked a 15-year-old boy at the Surfside beach in Texas on Monday afternoon, according to reports.
The attack took place around three miles north of the town of Surfside located on the Gulf of Mexico while the boy was in waist-deep water, reported ABC News.
“I hope this teenager grows up to be a cop and gets my back,” emergency worker Zuandra Monnat told the station. “He fought off this shark. It bit his leg and he literally tore this shark off of him and that’s how he got the lacerations to his hands.”
NBC News reported that the boy hit the shark before it gave up. When it let go of him, his friends helped him out of the water before he got first aid.
He was then airlifted to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Shark attacks are very uncommon in Surfside beach.
“I think he last time we had a shark bite was twenty years ago,” said Suandra Monnat, with the Surfside Police Department and Emergency Medical Service, told MyFoxHouston.com.
Assistant Chief Gregg Bisso told the station that the most common problems are jellyfish.
