1 Dies, 1 Hurt in N.C. Shark Attack

Updated: Mon, Sep 03 8:48 PM EDT

AVON, N.C. (AP) - A married couple wading in the surf off of North Carolina's Outer Banks was attacked by a shark Monday, leaving the man dead and his wife in critical condition.

The attack came just two days after a fatal shark attack at Virginia Beach, Va., 135 miles up the coast from Avon.

Information on the attack in North Carolina was thin Monday evening, but Dare County Emergency Management officials confirmed that the couple was attacked around 6 p.m.

An official at the Hyde County Sheriff's Department said the man was dead and the woman had been flown to the Norfolk Sentara Hospital in Virginia with substantial wounds to her lower torso.

Identities of the victims were not released. The victims were believed to be in their 20s.

It was the second fatal shark attack in the United States this year and was believed to be the first shark attack off the North Carolina coast this year. There were five attacks in the state last year, none of them fatal.

On Saturday, a shark in Virginia Beach attacked 10-year-old David Peltier, ripping a 17-inch gash in his left leg and releasing him from its grip only after the boy's father hit the shark on the head. The father carried David ashore but he died hours later after losing large amounts of blood from a severed artery.

The attack occurred in 4 feet of water about 50 yards from the shore off Sandbridge Beach, said Ed Brazle, division chief for the city's Emergency Medical Services.

Family and friends were shocked by the Virginia Beach shark attack - the first one in the area in 30 years and the first fatal one in the United States this year.

"I just wonder why it had to be him," the boy's mother, Carol Miles, 29, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "He did not deserve this, but he's in good hands now. The Lord wanted an angel, and he got one."

John Gorman, the boy's neighbor, said David had a penchant for football and often spent afternoons at his house playing with his daughter, Ruth.

"It's upsetting here and here," 10-year-old Ruth said, pointing to her heart and her head.

On Monday, a police helicopter carrying marine scientists periodically flew over Virginia Beach, and several police boats were on the water. A shark was spotted 200 yards off a military beach that is closed to the public, but marine scientists did not think it was the shark that attacked David.

Authorities don't know what caused the shark to attack, but Maylon White, curator of the Virginia Marine Science Museum, said during the helicopter flyovers he saw numerous schools of menhaden close to shore.

"I think the sharks are looking for food," White said. "They're following their natural instincts."

Tourists and residents were talking about the shark attack Monday, but weren't put off enough to cancel hotel reservations or stay away from the beach.

Many hotels were sold out, including the Comfort Inn, where owner Addison Richardson said no guests checked out early or expressed fear after learning of the attack.

"It's very sad, but there's no reason to be afraid," Chaya Brod of Silver Spring, Md., said as she walked along the beach while her husband and three of her children played in the surf. "You have to be out deep in the water in order to be attacked. It doesn't bother me."

-- Anonymous, September 03, 2001