A teenage girl was attacked and killed by a shark along a beach in Florida, US on Saturday.

In the bloody attack at about 11:15 a.m, a 10ft bull shark chewed off much of the left thigh of the 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle, a holidaymaker from Gonzales, Louisiana, when she and a pal were frolicking off in front of a campground near the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in the Florida Panhandle between Pensacola and Panama City, eight miles east of Destin.

They didn't see the 10-foot predator lurking in the waters until it was too late.

The reported bull shark had already sunk its teeth into the leg of one girl, dragging her underwater.

When Daigle resurfaced she was unconscious and all that was left of her leg was the thigh bone.

The teenager was given first aid by paramedics on the beach but was pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Sacred Heart Hospital.

Her friend Felicia Venable, also 14, was safe.

Tom Dicus, 54, a surfer who had seen the two girls splashing happily in the water moments earlier on their boogie-boards was alerted by the friend's screams.

He said: "I pulled the girl on to my board and headed for the beach. The shark followed us.

"He was determined to finish lunch. I hate to put it that way."

Authorities say there is no history of such attacks in the immediate area.

Beaches have been reopened Sunday with extra lifeguards along the coast.

Source: Xinhua/agencies