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At Rockaway Beach: No swimming
Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP
A 50-year-old woman has been seriously injured by a shark on a beach in the metropolis of New York City. The shark bit the woman, who was in the water at Rockaway Beach in the borough of Queens, in the leg, said the competent authorities of the city of New York. She was taken to the hospital and was in "critical but stable" condition.
According to various databases, the incident on Monday afternoon (local time) was probably the first shark attack on an urban beach in New York in decades, it said. As a precautionary measure, the beach was closed on Tuesday for a day for the time being, firefighters and police would search the sea from the air for sharks.
In recent years, more sharks have been spotted in the Atlantic Ocean around New York City and the offshore island of Long Island, partly because the water quality has improved. It was only at the beginning of July that several people were injured by sharks on the Long Island peninsula. Nevertheless, shark attacks remain rare.
SAK/DPA