Woman in hospital with shark latched to her arm

A woman who was bitten by a shark was taken to hospital for treatment — with the fish that bit her still hanging from her arm.

The 23-year-old was swimming off the coast of Red Reef Park, Florida, when the 60cm nurse shark took a chomp into her.

The fish remained attached to her as she returned to shore and emergency workers rushed to the scene.

The animal died before medics got there, but its ridged teeth remained tightly in place.

The unidentified woman was then taken to nearby Boca Regional Hospital with a splint to support the dead shark’s weight.

Eyewitnesses said that the woman had been provoking the shark by holding its tail when it bit her.

The woman was said to have been released from hospital on the same day that she was bitten.

Nurse sharks, common off the coast of Florida, can grow up to 4m long and will bite as a defence mechanism if provoked or stepped on by human.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Ocean Rescue Captain Clint Tracy told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Never even heard of anything like this.”

One witness told the Sun-Sentinel that, just before the attack, he had seen other swimmers bothering the shark and holding it by the tail.