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A 23-year-old man suffered injuries to his left calf and foot when a shark attacked him while he surfed Sunday in Brazilian waters declared off-limits to surfers.
Antonio Carvalho was attacked while surfing off Boa Viagem beach in Recife, some 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) northeast of Sao Paulo, firefighters said.
Shark attacks are a fairly common phenomenon off the beaches around Recife, where sharks feed in waters beyond a large coral reef. Signs along the beaches warn not to swim beyond the reef and surfing is now prohibited.
Gleison Sena of the Pernambuco state fire department said Carvalho was surfing in a high-risk area, where signs warn keep surfers away due to the frequent shark attacks.
Carvalho was the 48th person to suffer a shark attack in Pernambuco state since 1992. Seventeen of those attacks were fatal.