A shark mauled a Russian couple off North Carolina’s Outer Banks yesterday, killing the man and critically wounding the woman – just two days after a deadly attack up the coast spawned fresh fears about the underwater predators.
The latest attack happened around 6 p.m. in the village of Avon, while the victims swam near a sandbar some 30 feet off the beach, under sunny skies, authorities said.
“It was beautiful day and there were several people in the water with them,” Dare County Emergency Management dispatcher N.H. Sanderson said. “The Park Service is interviewing these people now.”
The victims’ names were not immediately released, but officials said both were Russian nationals living in the Washington, D.C., area.
The man, 27, was dead on arrival at Avon Medical Center. The woman, 23, was flown by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia, where she was listed in critical but stable condition after surgery for wounds to her torso.
“Our physicians indicate that they are very optimistic,” hospital spokeswoman Vicky Gray said, adding that the woman was conscious when she was brought in.
The Labor Day attack stunned residents and renters in Avon.
“I was taking my garbage out and a surfer kid came by in his car and he said he had been in the water and he had seen the attack,” William Duncan told The Post. “He thought it must have been a big shark that attacked him because the man had pretty horrific wounds.”
Duncan said he immediately rushed over a dune and down to the beach.
“There were a bunch of ambulances and maybe 40 or 50 people there and they were working somebody real intensively and they continued to do that for about 20 minutes until they took him away in an ambulance,” he said.
National Park Service spokeswoman Mary Doll said planes will survey the waters today looking for unusual activity, and the seashore could be closed.
Sand sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks and scalloped hammerheads are common in the area.
Andrew Nawoichik, owner of Hatteras Wind ‘n’ Surf in Avon said he’s seen them periodically.
“I’ve personally gotten bumped and there have been several isolated incidents where instructors have seen fins and had to pull the kids out of the water,” Nawoichik said.
The North Carolina attack – the state’s first this year and its first shark fatality since 1957 – happened just 135 miles down the coast from Virginia Beach, where a shark tore into 10-year-old David Peltier’s left leg Saturday.
The youngster’s father heroically wrestled with the shark in 4 feet of water, slamming it on the head until it released the boy. Richard Peltier carried his son to shore, but the fifth-grader died later after massive blood loss.
That attack was the first to claim a life in U.S. waters this year.
Marine scientists in a police helicopter flew over Virginia Beach, and police boats were on the water yesterday. A shark was spotted 200 yards off a military beach that is closed to the public, but no alerts were posted because the creature was not behaving aggressively.
There have been 52 shark attacks worldwide this year, including three fatal ones, according to the International Shark Attack File. Twenty-nine have been off Florida. With Post Wire Services