July 4 horror! Four people injured in shark attacks on Texas beach

Multiple people have been injured in shark attacks on South Padre Island in Texas during the Independence Day holiday.

Beachgoers flocking to the seaside on South Padre Island, a beach town on a barrier island of the same name, on the Fourth of July were met with a horrific surprise after four people encountered a shark, with at least two people bitten in the attacks.

Two of the four victims were bitten by the shark and were transported to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville – where one of them is being treated, and the other has been flown out for further treatment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a news release.

Officials said that the other two encountered the shark but were not seriously injured.

The attacks on the Fourth of July on South Padre Island are believed to have been the work of the same shark, said Chris Dowdy, Texas game warden captain, KSAT reports.

In a separate statement, fire chief Jim Pigg of the South Padre Island Fire Department said three of the victims were hospitalized, and a fourth was treated on scene for minor injuries, CNN states.

Pigg added that the shark involved in the attacks “was located at the south end of the island and was pushed out to deeper water.”

“It’s unprecedented here on South Padre Island,” he added.

Police responded to a 911 call at 11am reporting that one man had sustained "a severe shark bite to the leg,” city spokesperson Nikki Soto said, according to NBC News , and the victim was taken to a local hospital.

Pigg added that the first call involved one person who had been bitten and another person with minor injuries who did not need emergency care, the outlet reported.

A second 911 call was then placed that day, reporting a further shark bite attack, and two were subsequently taken to hospital, Pigg said.

One onlooker to the July 4 shark chaos told NBC that he saw a woman being pulled from the water who appeared to have a bite injury on her leg.

"Beach patrol lifted her up – her calf was just gone, shredded. Horrific," Kyle Jud, 46, said.

Two off-duty agents from the US Border Patrol Laredo Sector also stated on social media that they pulled one of the shark attack victims from the water and provided lifesaving aid.

Pigg reportedly added that lifeguards were encouraging people currently on South Padre Island to stay out of the water or at least go no further than knee-deep.

Despite four people coming across the shark on Thursday, the Parks and Wildlife officials said that shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas and when bites do occur they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food.

“If you see large schools of bait near the shore, this typically [is] an indicator a predator is nearby, or if you see a shark in the water, calmly exit the water and wait for the predatory wildlife to pass,” the Parks and Wildlife officials said.

Pigg said officials are currently unclear as to what type of shark was involved in the attack, but an investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, over in New Smyrna Beach in Florida , an Ohio tourist was also bitten on his right foot by a shark while playing football in knee-deep water on the Fourth of July, local reports say.

The man was taken to hospital for treatment but is thought to have sustained non-life threatening injuries.

New Smyrna Beach is in Volusia County, which had the most shark bites in Florida with eight, representing 50 per cent of the state’s total, making it 2023’s shark attack capital of the world, according to the International Shark Attack File for 2023 .

The file investigated 120 alleged shark-human interactions worldwide last year and found that 69 were unprovoked.

The United States came out on top as the country where most interactions happened , with 36 cases representing 52 per cent of the worldwide total.

Florida was home to 16 of the 36 unprovoked attacks in the US last year.