Teenage girl punches 6ft shark after being attacked on Florida beach

A 13-year-old girl punched a shark to escape it attacking her at a Florida beach.

Ella Reed ended up needing 19 stitches after the shark, which she believed was 5 to 6 feet, bit her on her stomach, arm, knee and finger.

She told South Florida’s Local 10 News, was sitting in waist-deep water, alongside a friend, when she was struck by intense, sharp pain.

“The shark itself was so powerful,” Reed reportedly said. “That was what I felt the most because it was hitting my stomach really hard.”

Reed said that she punched the shark when it came over to her. While the shark swam away, it returned almost immediately. “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,” Reed told the station.

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Reed then shouted for her brother and mother. “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,” her mother said. “She was shaking, but she was calm.”

“I was kinda in shock about everything that happened, so I wasn’t really in pain because the adrenaline was through the roof,” Reed said.

According to the University of Florida’s international shark attack file, Florida is the shark bite capital of the world. Of the 57 unprovoked shark bites recorded in 2022, 16 took place in Florida and while none resulted in death, two attack victims needed amputations.

Sounds like Reed had a lucky escape.

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