Two swimmers attacked by sharks in Myrtle Beach on same day

Two swimmers survived shark attacks on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina’s most popular beach, on the same day.

Two people were bitten by sharks within hours of each other on Monday at the popular vacation destination.

One of the swimmers sustained a serious injury to their forearm while the second suffered a less serious bite to the leg, police said.

The two attacks took place in the ocean only about half a mile apart. Police have said there’s no way to know if the two attacks were related.

One of the people attacked, Karren Sites, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told WPDE she’d been swimming at the tourist spot with her grandson when the shark swam up and bit her on the arm.

The family had prepared for the vacation to Myrtle Beach for an entire year, but on the first day of their trip around noon Sites was brutally attacked on the arm. Her injuries required hundreds of stitches, she told the outlet.

‘I just felt something, I guess, bite me and there was a shark on my arm. I was only in waist-deep water. I kept pushing at it to get it off my arm and it did, she said.

Her eight-year-old grandson was also 10 feet away when the shark bit her arm.

‘I couldn’t even see the shark coming up, but all I saw was the shark jumped up and it didn’t even bite all the way, like I saw the movement of the tail go to the side and then she screamed a little bit and as soon as she touched it , it fell into the water,’ her grandson, Brian, told the outlet.

There’s been an uptick in shark attacks along the east coast this summer, a possible result of a marine heat wave. At least seven people have been attacked by sharks this summer off the coast of Long Island, New York, as well as three in Florida, including a young boy who lost part of his leg.

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