A teen girl lost her arm in a gruesome shark attack, marking the second near-fatal attack in two days. As the incident occurred on a popular beach, the entire scene was documented in a series of disturbing photos and videos.
On May 6, emergency services responded to a distressing call at around 1:20 pm. A girl was mauled by a shark while swimming near the shore at Piedade Beach in Pernambuco State, Brazil.
Bystanders pulled the bleeding 15-year-old girl from the water as others filmed and photographed the horrific scene. Be warned that the photos of the shark attack, as well as the video of beachgoers pulling the teen from the water, are extremely graphic.
First responders then rushed the teen victim, identified as Kaylane Timoteo Freitas, from the beach, transferring her to a medic helicopter which airlifted her to a nearby hospital. There, doctors amputated a large portion of her left arm. According to the most recent reports, the teen remains in the hospital but is in stable condition.
Just one day earlier, another teenager suffered a horrifying shark attack a mere 1,600 feet from where Kaylane lost her arm. This victim, a 14-year-old boy, was left with his right femur exposed after a shark tore apart his leg.
Emergency services airlifted the teen to a nearby hospital, where he, too, went through an amputation. The young boy will live the rest of his life without his right leg.
Authorities Marked Beach Where Shark Attack Occurred ‘High-Risk’ Decades Ago
Unbelievably, even a teen losing her arm to a shark attack in front of their eyes wasn’t enough to get some swimmers out of the water. Lifeguards on the scene had to escort at least one swimmer from the sea to protect them from falling victim to the nearby shark themselves.
According to local paramedic Marcelo Alves, however, this isn’t that out of the ordinary. In fact, swimmers aren’t supposed to be in the water at all. Sadly, that doesn’t stop visitors from taking dips by the dozen.
Authorities have urged beachgoers against swimming in the water since 1999. In 2021, they finally marked it a banned area for swimming due to the high number of shark attacks.
“The team is already alert about these events that have been happening,” Alves explained to The Sun. “Unfortunately, there is a law that says that swimming is not allowed. But people insist on going into the sea.”
It isn’t just verbal warnings, either. The beach is marked with some 150 signs warning visitors of the dangers of shark attacks.
The Greater Recife area, including Piedade Beach, is believed to be the most deadly shark attack spot in the world. The area houses a wide variety of shark species, including bull and tiger sharks, species known to swim in shallow waters close to shore.
Bull and tiger sharks are also among the species most often behind shark attacks. Contrary to popular belief, sharks are largely harmless to humans. Of the hundreds of species of sharks in the world’s seas, only around a dozen have documented attacks on humans.