Shark attacks 13-year-old girl twice in Florida

Ella Reed, of Florida, was sitting in shallow water with her friends at Fort Pierce Beach on Thursday when a suspected six-foot long bull shark that had been swimming nearby sank its teeth into her side.

The shark itself was so powerful. That was what I felt the most because it was hitting my stomach really hard,’ she told Local 10 News. ‘It wouldn’t leave me alone, so I had to use my arm and use my hand too, so it got my arm and my finger.’

She punched the shark in the face to deter it from attacking her again and it swam off, but eventually the terrorizer came back, and she had to fend it off again. The teenager screamed out for her mother as the shark continued to circle her.

Her mother, who was not identified, was shocked to see her daughter ‘totally covered in blood pretty much from head to toe.’

‘[Ella] couldn’t really see what went on,’ the mother said. ‘She was shaking but she was calm.’

The young girl sustained injuries to her stomach, arm, finger, and knee and had to get 19 stitches, according to Local 10 News.

Despite needing nearly 20 stitches, Ella said she didn’t really feel the pain at first.

‘I was kind of in shock about everything that happened,’ she told the local outlet. ‘So, I wasn’t really in pain because the adrenaline was through the roof.’

The young girl sustained injuries to her stomach, arm, finger, and knee and had to get 19 stitches.

She is currently recovering at home and said she is proud of her scars, knowing the attack could have been much worse.

Ella won’t let the attack stop her from enjoying the ocean and plans on returning to the clear blue waters after she recovers fully.

Florida has the most recorded shark bites in the world. A total of 57 unprovoked attacks happened worldwide last year and 16 alone were in Florida, according to the University of Florida’s international shark attack file.

Australia recorded the second most unprovoked shark bites.