Rockaway Beach in NYC closed after shark attack leaves women in critical condition after ‘chunk’ was taken out of her leg – in first attack at beach since 1953
- A woman was bitten on the leg by a shark while swimming at Rockaway Beach
- The attacked happened on Monday evening and the beach was shut on Tuesday
- The NYPD and FDNY were conducting aerial surveillance to find the shark
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Rockaway Beach is closed to swimmers and surfers on Tuesday after a woman was attacked by a shark – in the first shark blitz on the popular NYC beach in 70 years.
The unnamed 65-year-old woman was bitten by the shark just before 6pm Monday while swimming off the Queens beach.
The woman lost a ‘chunk’ of her left leg, above the knee, to the shark.
A spokesman for the New York City Police Department told The New York Times on Tuesday morning that the woman was in ‘serious but stable’ condition after being taken to Jamaica Hospital.
The last shark attack along the Rockway beach was in 1953 when a 15-year-old boy was bitten by a shark that was hooked in his fishing line – prior to that the last Rockaway Beach shark attack was in 1909, according to the New York Daily News.
The coast of Long Island is no stranger to attacks, however, with six already reported this summer.
Rockaway Beach was closed Tuesday after a woman was attacked by a shark, leaving her in serious condition. Police are seen gathering by the beach at 59th Street on Monday evening
Police rushed to the scene at Rockaway Beach, in the Queens neighborhood of New York City, shortly before 6pm Monday
The woman’s gruesome bit took 20 pounds of flesh from the victim, according to The New York Post.
According to the crime reporting app Citizen, police applied a tourniquet to the victim before she was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
The FDNY confirmed to DailyMail.com officers had responded to a call at Beach 59th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard at 5.52pm. Swimmers were ordered out of the water moments after the incident.
After the incident, police flew a drone and a helicopter over the beach to locate the shark, but were unsuccessful. Parks department officials said the FDNY and NYPD would continue with aerial surveillance of the beach to monitor for sharks.
‘As a safety precaution, Rockaway Beach will be closed to swimming and surfing today, August 8, due to recent shark activity,’ wrote Gregg McQueen, a spokesperson for the parks department in a statement.
Police gather along Rockaway Beach at 59th Street after a woman was attacked by a shark in the early evening on August 7. It was the first shark attack off Rockaway Beach since 1953
Parks department officials said the FDNY and NYPD would continue with aerial surveillance of the beach to monitor for sharks. Pictured is a surveillance drone on the beach on Monday evening
It was the first attack by a shark on a person on Rockaway Beach ‘in recent memory’, according to the parks department
The incident follows shark sightings off Rockaway Beach last year, which similarly caused the city to close the beach to swimmers last July.
The attack is the latest of a string of incidents in recent weeks. Although attacks as far west as the Rockaways are rare, swimmers further east along Long Island are at a greater risk.
One Long Island shark expert told the Daily News it was likely the the attack on Monday was the result of poor visibility in the water.
‘Today it was really windy, the water was churned up. The water is probably a little more murky. That all adds to the potential of these bites happening,’ said Christopher Paparo, manager of the marine lab at Stony Brook University.
A teenager was attacked by a shark over the Fourth of July holiday weekend during a trip to New York’s Fire Island. That attack was one of six along Long Island this year.
In the July 4 holiday incident, Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau officers were called to the Fire Island coast and they rushed to the aid of the 15-year-old bitten off Kismet Beach at around 5.20pm.
The teen was subsequently taken to the Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for medical assistance.
Last year, the country saw 41 of 57 confirmed cases worldwide – 72 percent of the world’s total for 2022, according to the International Shark Attack File.
