Two swimmers sustained injuries from shark bites in separate encounters at South Carolina's Myrtle Beach on Monday, according to police.
In a statement issued to TODAY, a spokesperson for the Myrtle Beach Police Department confirmed the two incidents occurred on Aug. 15, the first at 11:17 a.m. and the second at 12:35 p.m.
The spokesperson could not speak to the exact ages of the victims but noted that one was a juvenile.
“The juvenile luckily only had a glancing injury to her leg while the woman had a significant injury to her arm,” the spokesperson said. “Both were non-life-threatening although the arm injury did require treatment at the hospital.”
The encounters occurred within a mile of each other. It is unclear whether it was the same shark who bit the two victims.
According to the Myrtle Beach Police Department spokesperson, the department’s beach patrol works with the University of Florida’s Florida Program for Shark Research to identify marine animal bites, specifically sharks.
Shark attacks in the U.S., including multiple incidents on the same day on Long Island, New York, have made headlines this summer.
Earlier this month, a 10-year-old boy had one of his legs amputated below the knee after he sustained a shark injury while snorkeling during a vacation with his family in the Florida Keys, according to state officials and a family member.
Shark attacks on humans are rare. The U.S. experienced 47 confirmed cases of unprovoked shark bites last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
