A shark bit a woman at a Boca Raton beach on Sunday and wouldn't let go, even after it died.
The 23-year-old woman was transported to a hospital, where doctors removed the 2-foot-long nurse shark, which had clamped down on her right forearm,
CNN reported. The woman was, in the end, OK.
"The shark wouldn't give up," beachgoer Shlomo Jacob
told the Sun Sentinel. "It was barely breathing but it wasn't letting go of her arm, like it was stuck to her or something."
Beachgoers saw people antagonizing the nurse shark before it bit the woman, the newspaper reported.
Nurse sharks are common in the area, however attacks are rare, and the clamping bite typically happens only when a shark is antagonized, the Sun Sentinel reported, citing a National Park Service brochure.
"It's a shark that's been in our park for sometime," said Capt. Clint Tracy of Boca Raton Fire Rescue. "And although we have compassion for the victim we're also sad that the shark is not going to be there anymore."
Bob Lemons, spokesman for the Boca Raton Fire Rescue,
told USA Today that the woman remained calm during the incident.
"This was a unique situation for us," Lemons said. "I haven't heard of something like that before, and I've been here almost 30 years."
Twitter users shared mixed reactions.
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