10-year-old killed by shark at US beach

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - A boy aged 10 died yesterday after he had been attacked by an 2.5m shark, America's first such fatality this year.

David Peltier died in hospital after suffering massive blood loss when the shark bit his leg while he was about 45m yards from the shore in water just over a metre deep.

Witnesses told how the boy's father had fought off the shark and hit it on the head to rescue his son.

Surprisingly, the attack happened not in Florida, where most of the summer's incidents have taken place, but on the Virginia coast.

Locals in Sanbridge Beach, a remote community south of Virginia Beach, said there had been no shark attacks in the area for 30 years.

The shark attacked David while he and his two brothers were surfing with their father, Richard. Witnesses said Mr Peltier rushed to his son's aid as his other children started screaming.

"You could just see him attacking [it] ­ pushing off the shark," said Rex Carter, who was on the beach.

Mr Peltier carried David ashore where lifeguards gave the boy first aid before he was taken to a hospital nearby. He died there early yesterday morning.

"As a result of the attack, the main artery in his left thigh was severed, resulting in significant blood loss," said George Stinnett, a spokesman for the hospital.

Scientists with the city's Virginia Marine Science Museum flew over the beaches in a police helicopter on Sunday but said they could see no sharks.

The museum's curator, Maylon White, said authorities did not know what kind of shark attacked the boy, although it is likely to have been a large sandbar shark, which typically are 1.2m to 1.8m long and are not normally considered aggressive.

"In many cases like this, the shark is feeding and it's after fish and it mistakes the person for the fish," said Mr White.

Virginia Beach's Mayor, Meyera Oberndorf, said: "I speak for the entire city of Virginia Beach when I say how terribly saddened I am by this horrible accident."

Labour Day weekend is one of the busiest and most profitable times of year for the beaches and, after the helicopter flight spotted no sharks, the city's beaches were open with divers and a jet-skier continuing to patrol the waters.

But, after a summer of near hysteria surrounding sharks, initiated by a series of attacks beginning with that on an eight-year-old boy in Florida in July, not everyone was persuaded that the waters around Virgina Beach were safe.

"Now that I know, I wouldn't get back in the water," said James Whitaker, 15, from Durham, North Carolina, who had been in the ocean.

Eight-year-old Jessie Arbogast remains in a light coma after a shark bit off his arm while he was swimming off Florida's Gulf Coast.

The boy's father wrestled the shark ashore and pulled the arm from its gullet for it to be re-attached.

There have been 49 shark attacks worldwide this year, with one fatal attack in Brazil. A total of 28 have taken place in Florida waters.

Last year, there were 84 shark attacks worldwide, 53 in the US.

- INDEPENDENT