Florida woman taken to hospital with shark still attached to arm following bite

A woman was forced to go to hospital with a shark still attached to her arm after it bit her off the coast of Florida. The 23-year-old was pictured by emergency services with the nurse shark still on her arm at the beach in Boca Raton.

The shark remained firmly gripped onto the woman's arm even after it had died. Paramedics used a splint board to support the arm with the shark still attached and she was taken to Boca Regional Hospital with non-serious injuries.

A spokesperson for Boca Raton Ocean Rescue said the woman was calm throughout the incident and there was not a lot of blood following the bite.

Eyewitness Shlomo Jacob told the South Florida Sun Sentinel: "The shark wouldn't give up. It was barely breathing but it wasn't letting go of her arm, like it was stuck to her or something."

Nurse sharks, which can grow up to 10ft in length, are common along the east coast of the US but are only known to attack humans if stepped on or bothered in some way.