Girl in Good Condition After NC Shark Attack

Filed under: In The News

A 6-year-old girl is giving the thumbs up to Flipper and thumbs down to Jaws after falling victim to a shark attack in North Carolina July 19.

"I hate sharks," she told her parents, according to a statement reported by NBC News. "I like dolphins way better."

The girl, who has not been named, but reportedly is in good condition, was boogie-boarding in very shallow water off Ocracoke Island at Cape Hatteras National Seashore when she was bitten on her lower right leg and foot, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service Outer Banks Group tells NBC.

In a statement, her parents say the girl's mom was 10 feet away at the time and saw the attack, according to the network.

"Paramedics arrived promptly and she received excellent medical attention from EMS personnel, life-flight crew, and Pitt County Memorial Hospital medical staff in Greenville," the statement reads.

The last shark attack at the much-visited Cape Hatteras National Seashore was in 2001, NBC reports, resulting in the death of a 28-year-old Russian tourist. It is, however, the second shark attack in North Carolina in less than a month, the network adds. Cassidy Cartwright, 10, was bitten in the leg twice in June. A 12-year-old boy was bitten July 7 in Texas.

"I thought it was just somebody messing around, and I found out that it wasn't, because it pulled me down again," Cartwright told NBC News.

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