People surround and attend to a 68-year-old man that was bit by a shark in waist-deep water off Ocracoke Island, N.C., Wednesday, July 1, 2015.Laura I. Hefty/The Associated Press
A shark bit a 68-year-old man several times Wednesday in waist-deep water off the coast of North Carolina, officials said, the seventh attack in the U.S. state's coastal waters in less than three weeks.
The man suffered wounds to his rib cage, lower leg, hip and both hands as he tried to fight off the animal, said Justin Gibbs, the director of emergency services in Hyde County. The attack happened around noon on a beach on Ocracoke Island, he said.
"The individual was actually located right in front of the lifeguard tower when it occurred," said Mr. Gibbs, who said witnesses reported the animal was about two metres long. "He was pulled under by the shark. He was bit several times."
He was swimming in waist-deep water with his adult son about nine metres offshore, the U.S. National Park Service said in a news release. There were no other swimmers injured.
The man is the seventh person attacked along the North Carolina coast in three weeks, the most in at least 15 years. Most were attacked in water similarly shallow.
Shark experts say the recent spate of attacks along the coast of the Carolinas is due to so many more people getting in the water. Americans made 2.2 billion visits to beaches in 2010, up from two billion in 2001, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimate.
Roger Rulifson, a professor of biology at East Carolina University, said recently that there have been reports of small bait fish coming closer to shore this summer, which attracts sharks. There have also been reports of larger numbers of sea turtles along the coast, which sharks also like to eat, he said.