Emergency personnel responded a shark attack at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, Mass. Image: AP
A bodyboarder surfing at a Cape Cod beach died on Saturday after being attacked by a shark. It is the first shark-attack related death in over 80 years. The last one occurred in 1936.
The victim, a 26-year-old man from Revere, Massachusetts, was bodyboarding with a friend at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet when the attack occurred. He was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital on Saturday afternoon. His name has not been released.
“I was that guy on the beach screaming, ‘Shark, shark!’ ” Joe Booth, a local fisherman told the New York Post. “It was like right out of that movie ‘Jaws.’ This has turned into Amity Island real quick out here.”
According to Booth, the victim kicked at the shark when the attack happened. Soon after, the friend dragged him ashore, where good samaritans on the beach applied a tourniquet and called 911.
The beach was closed soon after and will remain closed until officials decide what to do. “Today is just keeping everyone out of the water,” said Wellfleet Police Lt. Michael Hurley. “There’ll be a determination later about what the town wants to do with the beaches going forward.”
