Shark Bites South Carolina Woman on Honeymoon in Rare Attack

A newlywed South Carolina couple got a shock on their honeymoon when a shark bit the wife's arm while she was swimming in a resort attraction.

Sarah and Evan Carroll were swimming with sharks in the Caribbean on Friday when one of the tawny nurse sharks attacked Sarah, 25. She told People magazine that at first she thought the jolt she felt was a joke by her husband, but soon realized it was a shark bite.

"I felt a strong whoosh of water, something clamps down on my arm and assumed my husband was playing a prank on me," she told the magazine. "Less than a second later I realized how much it hurt and looked…to see the shark latched onto my arm... I was completely shocked and naturally frightened and in pain from the bite."

Evan did not see the five-foot nurse shark chomp down on his wife's arm, according to The Charlotte Observer, but he managed to capture the attack on his camera. The video shows the shark come out from under a pier and swim toward Sarah, who has one arm outstretched in front of her. The shark then bites down on that arm, near her wrist.

Sarah managed to pull herself free and swim off. When he realized what had happened, Evan also sprang into action and applied pressure to the wound with a towel.

"Evan is the calmest person I know, so he handled everything great. He calmly got me out of the water and helped with first aid," Sarah told People. "He was nervous getting me out of the water because the nurse shark did come back around and circled us after the bite."

Though she said the bite was painful, Sarah was able to make light of the event later, posting the video on Facebook and Instagram, jokingly telling pals, "Ended the honeymoon with a bang...Check out the surprise and very rare nurse shark bite in the video and don't forget the volume to hear the crunchhhhh."

The couple had managed a successful experience swimming with the sharks earlier in the honeymoon and posted a photo on social media of Sarah floating beside three of the huge fish alongside a yacht.

Nurse sharks are generally slow-moving sharks and spend a lot of their time resting on the ocean's bottom. They feed mostly at night on spiny lobsters and other crustaceans, small stingrays, sea urchins, squid and bony fishes and rarely attack humans.