 Emergency officials on Monday took to boats and helicopters in a hunt for the shark they say attacked two youths in waist-deep water Sunday in coastal North Carolina, leaving them both severely injured with lost limbs. Mayor Betty Wallace of Oak Island, a seaside town bordered to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, said... (Associated Press) 
 
 Emergency responders assist a teenage girl at the scene of a shark attack in Oak Island, N.C., Sunday, June 14, 2015. Multiple media outlets have identified the girl as Kiersten Yow, of Archdale, and Hunter Treschel, from Colorado Springs, Colo. Officials said the girl was vacationing with her family while the boy was visiting relatives in the area. “Those are the kinds of things that are required at this point, as well as an educational campaign to users of those beaches that in fact it is a wilderness experience when we enter the ocean.” 
 
 Currently, Oak Island has no lifeguards, and town manager Tim Holloman said Monday the town has no plan to put lifeguards on the beaches. Sheriff’s deputies reported spotting a 7-foot shark near the attack sites Sunday evening, Sheriff John Ingram said, and another shark was spotted Monday morning. There’s speculation that her attack might be related to Sunday’s, but so far, “there’s been no serious correlations,” Holloman said. Mayor Betty Wallace of Oak Island, a seaside town bordered to the south by the Atlantic... (Associated Press) 
 
 A 12-year-old girl lost her left arm below the elbow and suffered a leg injury Sunday afternoon; then about an hour and 20 minutes later and 2 miles away, a shark bit off the left arm above the elbow of a 16-year-old boy. Most beachgoers near the spot alongside a fishing pier where the first victim was attacked were staying in very shallow water or on the sand Monday. The reality is that sharks are highly mobile, and the shark that bit those guys yesterday could be 40 miles away.” 
 
 Victims of Sunday’s attacks were airlifted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington following the attacks, town officials said Monday. The 12-year-old girl (who was first identified by authorities as 13) had an arm amputated below the elbow, and sustained serious injuries to her left leg. “To keep it open without even lifeguards in the area” seems like a bad idea, Burgess said, adding that closing a beach for one or two days could ensure the shark has moved on. After a pair of shark attacks over the weekend that left two young people missing limbs, officials in a North Carolina beach town say they are prepared to euthanize any sharks they see exhibiting “aggressive behavior” near the coastline, a move shark experts say would be “foolhardy” and “just plain stupid.” 
 
 The attacks occurred early Sunday evening within about an hour of each other in Oak Island, N.C. “If they look like they’re posing a danger, we will authorize that action,” Holloman told the Los Angeles Times. They will periodically bite people.” 
 
 Despite Sunday’s incidents, Abel said shark attacks are infrequent and “low likelihood events.” Thirty-four shark attacks were reported in North Carolina between 2001 and 2014, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “I saw someone carry this girl [out of the water] and people were swarming around and trying to help,” Steve Bouser, who had just begun his weeklong beach vacation, told the Associated Press.
– After two young people lost their left arms in an extremely rare pair of shark attacks on Sunday, there were ATVs patrolling the beach, and helicopters and boats searching the waters off Oak Island, NC, yesterday—but no lifeguards. Town officials say they'll keep looking for sharks, but they have neither the ability nor the authority to keep people out of the water, despite recommendations from shark experts. More: The town's fire chief says the beach stayed open because "there's no way for us to control" sharks near the shore. "We have 9 miles of beach and more entry points [than] we can man," he tells the Charlotte Observer. "What we can do is just advise beach-goers to be careful if they do enter the water. We can't stop them from entering." The town's manager says there's no money for lifeguards, and it's not clear whether they would have made a difference. University of Florida shark expert George Burgess, however, tells the Guardian that officials "should consider closing the beach" for at least a couple of days, getting extra lifeguards in the area," and teaching people that to enter the ocean is to enter a wilderness. Burgess adds that while it was probably the same shark in both attacks, the chances of identifying it are "slim to none" and it could be 40 miles away by now. The town's manager tells the Los Angeles Times that if any sharks are seen displaying "aggressive" behavior—like coming within 100 feet of the shore—they may be killed, though shark experts say this is a "foolhardy" approach that didn't reduce shark attacks when it was tried in Australia. Both victims, a 12-year-old girl whose age was initially reported as 13 and a 16-year-old boy, are now in fair condition, reports the AP, which notes that they were both swimming around 20 yards offshore in waist-deep water—and authorities didn't warn beachgoers until after the first attack. If the girl had been attacked at another part of the beach, she might not have survived, according to another Charlotte Observer story. After the bite, the girl was taken onto the beach just yards away from the rental cottage of Marie Hildreth, an experienced Charlotte paramedic who ran to help and was able to stanch the bleeding with a rope cut from a surfing bodyboard. And there was more help at hand: Hildreth was on vacation with relatives, including her fire captain husband, her police officer brother-in-law, her firefighter brother, and her mother, who warned people to get out of the water.