An 8-year-old boy has suffered minor injuries on his leg and foot from a shark bite near a North Carolina beach. The boy was swimming in shallow water at a beach in Surf City, North Carolina, when shark attacked him on Wednesday.

Officials said that the boy was around five blocks away from a fishing pier. As per town policy, swimming or surfing is not allowed within 300 feet of a fishing pier. Police and EMS treated the boy on the beach and his parents took him to hospital for further treatment.

Surf City Town Manager Larry Bergman said that they will increase beach patrol and the beach will not be closed for public. This month, it was the fourth shark attack off the coast of North Carolina. Surf City is around 60 miles northeast of Ocean Isle Beach.

On June 11, a girl, 13, suffered small cuts on her foot from shark bite at Ocean Isle Beach. After three days, two separate shark attacks happened within 90 minutes at Oak Island, North Carolina.

Since 1935, North Carolina has witnessed only 52 shark attacks and three of them were quite fatal, unveiled the International Shark Attack File maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History. Sharks attacks are increasing across the nations.

As per experts, rise in shark attacks is probably because more number of people swimming in the ocean. But the attacks taken in North Carolina this month are unusual as all of the victims were swimming in shallow waters.