A TEEN girl has lost her leg after being brutally attacked by a nine-foot shark, police said.
The bloody encounter occurred Thursday in Keaton Beach in northwestern Florida.
Deputies with the Taylor County Sheriff's Office said a teen girl was scalloping in water about five feet deep near Grassy Island, just of Keaton Beach, when a shark bit her.
One of the girl's family members jumped in the water and beat the shark off the teen until she was free, police said.
The juvenile was airlifted to a Tallahassee hospital with serious injuries.
Taylor County Sheriff Wayne Padgett told WCTV that the girl had surgery and lost her leg but is expected to survive.
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Officials said the shark was described as approximately nine feet long.
The latest attack comes as Parks and Recreation officials are putting swimmers on high alert due to an increase in shark sightings reported earlier than usual this summer.
Several factors, including warming ocean temperatures, are contributing to an increase in shark activity in cities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline and West Coast.
A resurgence of the bunker fish population is also luring them to area waters.
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