New York, New York - Paramedics rushed a woman to Jamaica Hospital with a critical leg wound she sustained off the coast of Rockaway Beach in New York City, in what may be the area's first shark attack since 1953.

First responders rushed to the shoreline near Beach 59th Street in response to a 911 call at 5:49 PM EDT Monday, where they found the victim suffering an injury to her left leg, according to police.

Police escorted an ambulance carrying the victim to Jamaica Hospital, where she was listed in critical, but non-life-threatening condition, cops said.

Police and firefighters were not immediately able to confirm whether the victim's wound was the result of a shark attack.

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The incident follows a string of recent shark sightings off the coast of Rockaway Beach, which caused the city to temporarily close the beach to swimming on several occasions last month.

The last person to suffer a shark bite off the coast of Rockaway Beach was 15-year-old Alan Stevenson Jr., who hooked a shark while fishing in 1953. The fish bit his leg after he grabbed it by the tail.

Before that, there hadn't been an attack off Rockaway Beach by a shark since 1909.

Attacks off the coast of Rockaway are rare, but New Yorkers living up the coast of Long Island are at greater risk, with three swimmers suffering shark bites this year off the coast of Fire Island and the Hamptons on the Fourth of July alone.