Two reported shark attacks led authorities Friday to temporarily close beaches to swimmers in Walton County, on the Florida Panhandle.
The first attack occurred in the afternoon when a woman was injured by a shark near Watersound, the county sheriff’s office said. She was taken to a medical facility for treatment.
Later in the day, firefighters responded to an incident near Inlet Beach “after multiple reports of a teenager injured by a shark,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The water is now closed to the public in Walton County,” the office wrote in a social media post.
The conditions of the two people and the extent of their injuries were not immediately known.
Shark attacks are rare, experts say.
There were 69 unprovoked bites worldwide last year, and 10 of them were fatal, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. That was higher than the recent average of six deaths per year.
