A woman was taken to hospital in Florida with a small nurse shark attached to her arm in an incident one witness described as like nothing he had ever seen before.
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The 23-year-old woman was swimming at a beach at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton with a group of friends when the shark, about 60 centimetres long, latched onto her right forearm on Sunday afternoon, local time.
Photographs show the woman sitting on the beach as a number of people surround her, examining the wound to her arm and holding up the shark to support its weight.
Robert Lemons, from Boca Raton Fire Rescue, said in a statement that the shark was dead before the fire department arrived "but was still attached to her arm".
A board was used to support the woman's arm and the weight of the shark.
"I have never seen anything like it. Never even heard of anything like this," Boca Raton Ocean Rescue Captain Clint Tracy told the Sun-Sentinel news organisation in Florida.
Nurse sharks have strong jaws filled with tiny, serrated teeth which they use to crush food, including shellfish and coral.
They will bite defensively if stepped on or antagonised, but are generally considered harmless to humans.
An 11-year-old boy told the Sun-Sentinel that, before the woman was bitten, he saw a group of people "holding the shark by its tail. They were messing with it."
Mr Tracy said the woman remained calm while the shark was attached to her arm, and there was little blood.
The Boca Raton Regional Hospital said the woman had been treated and was in the process of being released on Sunday afternoon.
Fairfax Media with AP
