Shark attacks were reported twice in a three-day stretch in the shallow water off the Florida panhandle.
One victim was a 16-year-old who was standing in chest-high water and fishing with shrimp as bait. His right left was amputated.
But another 14-year-old, Jamie Daigle, was killed in a separate incident.
The attacks have “unnerved Florida beachgoers just as the jam-packed Fourth of July weekend is about to begin,” said the New York Daily News.
The two incidents happened about 80 miles apart. Experts say it is virtually certain two different sharks were involved.
Experts also point out that sharks are common in the warm shallow water of the panhandle, but they rarely bother humans. They add that such attacks remain rare.
On average, Florida in recent years has had about 33 shark attacks a year. That number dropped to a dozen last year.
Before the teenager who was killed, the last fatal shark attack in Florida was in 2001.
Report by David Wilkening
