17-year-old girl punched shark as it bit her off Florida coast

(CBS) A 17-year-old girl who was bitten by a five-foot shark in waters off Florida’s Panhandle punched the shark as it was biting her in an effort to drive it away, according to CBS affiliate WKRG and authorities.

Caitlyn Taylor said she initially thought the shark — in a wave headed toward her — was a dolphin. She said it took her by the legs, tugged on her, then immediately let her loose.

Witnesses said Taylor was bitten while she was waist deep in water slightly after 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Taylor had scrape wounds on her left leg as well as puncture wounds on her right leg, emergency personnel said. She needed 80 stitches.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office previously described her injury as “fairly minor.”

It is unclear what type of shark bit Taylor, who is from Louisville, Kentucky, and was visiting Destin with her high school softball team, authorities said, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.

A tourist told the newspaper he saw blood running from the teen’s thigh as two friends helped her out of the water. While the area of the bite didn’t appear very large, “she was bleeding pretty good,” said Francis Thelen, who was visiting Destin.

The bite was the fourth documented attack off Okaloosa County beaches since 1882, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which documents shark attacks worldwide. None of them were fatal.