NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — A woman was seriously injured after a shark bit her on the thigh while she was swimming at a New York City beach, officials said.

The 65-year-old woman was swimming off Rockaway Beach just before 6 p.m. Monday when a shark bit her on the left leg, the city parks department said in a statement.

Lifeguards pulled the woman from the water and administered first aid. The woman was taken to Jamaica Hospital in critical but stable condition with severe lacerations to her thigh, a police spokesperson said.

A photograph of the woman’s injury shared by lifeguards showed a deep gash above her knee, with several inches of outer thigh missing and blood around the wound. The bite appeared to be far more serious than many of the other shark encounters reported in the region, which often involve the predators lightly nibbling the swimmer to determine whether they are prey, then moving on.

Lifeguards cleared all swimmers from the water and police used a helicopter to search the area for sharks but did not find any, the parks department said. Rockaway Beach was closed to swimming and surfing Tuesday as a precaution.

Experts say shark bites are extremely rare, with roughly 70 to 80 unprovoked bites worldwide each year. The last recorded shark bite on Rockaway Beach came more than six decades ago, according to a database compiled by the International Shark Attack File. 

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