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Ella Reed, 13, believes the shark that attacked and bit her while she sat in shallow water at a Florida beach was a bull shark.
A 13-year-old girl walked away from a Florida beach battered and bleeding after she was attacked by a shark, which she escaped after punching.
The teen, Ella Reed, was wading in shallow water with a friend at Fort Pierce Beach Thursday. She felt a sudden, sharp pain at her side.
After she realized it was a shark, Reed punched the animal, which she believes to be a 5- to 6-foot bull shark, to deter it. It eventually swam back, so Reed tried protecting herself by using her arm and hand.
The shark bit Reed’s stomach, arm, knee and finger before she could get out of the water.
Reed called for her mom and brother, who were also at the beach.
“It was insane because she was totally covered in blood pretty much from head to toe so she couldn’t really see what went on,” Reed’s mom said, as reported by WPLG Local 10 News. The teen was shaking but she remained calm, her mom said.
Reed received a total of 19 stitches.
But the attack wasn’t enough to scare Reed, a Florida native, away. She said she might be nervous at first, but she won’t hesitate to get back in the water.
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