WASHINGTON - A boy aged 10 has died after being 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 from the shore in water just four feet deep.
Witnesses told how the boy's father had fought off the shark and hit it on the head as he struggled 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.
Having freed his sons from the shark, Mr Peltier carried David ashore where lifeguards gave the boy first aid before he was taken to the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CRRCT) in Norfolk.
He died there last night (NZT). "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.
