Rileigh Decker, 20, and Summer Layman, 24, were swimming in the waters of Bimini Bay when they were bitten by what they believe to have been a bull shark.

Unprovoked shark attacks are rare in the Bahamas, with just 34 recorded since 1580, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File. This ranks the Caribbean country ninth among all tracked countries, with the US leading at 1,640 cases, followed by Australia with 706 and South Africa with 262, the data shows.

It destroyed my leg basically. It severed my Achilles. My artery is severed, my nerve is severed,” one of the victims told CNN.