Shark attacks lifeguard on Hilton Head Island, 2nd incident in one week at beaches near Savannah

HILTON HEAD ISLAND (AP) - A lifeguard on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island has been bitten by a shark, authorities said.

The lifeguard is recovering and expected to survive after Tuesday's attack, WTOC-TV reported.

The lifeguard was checking water conditions in the Palmetto Dunes area when the bite happened, according to the operations manager of Shore Beach Services.

He suffered deep lacerations to the chest area, the Savannah television station reported.

The lifeguard was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia.

It was the second reported shark attack on a human in the past week on beaches near Savannah.

At nearby Tybee Island, Georgia, a well-known surfing instructor was bitten July 27 while leading one of his surfing classes. Atsushi Yamada, known to his surfing students and others as "Hot Sushi," is thankful that he wasn't injured more seriously.

"I joke with people - my nickname is Hot Sushi," he told WSAV-TV. "I'm still Hot Sushi, not cold sushi yet."

The same day of the Tybee Island attack, a 15-year-old visiting North Carolina's Wrightsville Beach needed more than a dozen stitches after he was bitten by what officials think was a shark. The teen's family was visiting from Tennessee, and the teen was in waist-deep water when he was bitten, his father, Ivan Nekrasov, said.

No one got a good look at what bit the boy, but Wrightsville Beach Fire Department Chief Glen Rogers said they think it was a shark. The doctor who tended to the teen thinks the wound was likely caused by a small shark about three or four feet long, Nekrasov said.