Sitting on a hospital wheel chair, six-year-old Lucy Mangum told the story of a shark attack that spooked those who frequent North Carolina's Ocrakoke Beach.

Lucy and her parents held a media conference at the East Carolina Heart Institute at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where the girl is being treated, to narrate how the frightening event took place.

Lucy was attacked by a tiger shark on the beach while spending time with parents and sister on July 19. She said the shark came up from behind her and sank its teeth on her leg. She said she saw the tail of the shark. The shark had bitten her twice.

Her mother threw more light into how the incident unfolded. "I heard her scream so I immediately turned towards her and at that point saw the shark right next to her," said Lucy's mother Jordan Mangum, according to an ABC News report.

She said she ran over to the daughter and tried to get her out of the water. She said her daughter had been 'injured pretty badly.' "It was a pretty big gash," she said.

Shark attacks are rare, but the second shark attack in as many months has frightened beach goers. Last month, a 10-year-old girl was attacked by a shark at North Topsail Beach.

Quoting experts, the ABC News report cautioned that sharks of all kinds live off the coast and that they move towards the cost in the evenings in search for food.

A week after the attack, Lucy is now spending time on wheelchair, but parents are convinced she will only have to spend a while on it. She is getting better and she harbors no 'ill feeling' towards the shark either. Forgiving the shark, Lucy said: "He didn’t mean to do it ... I tried to swim away."

But she was obviously frightened when she went through processes at the hospital. "Am I going to be in a wheelchair? Am I going to walk again? Am I going to die?" she asked, according to her father.

And her mother said the family will continue to visit beaches. "It’s a good ending .. She’s going to be running and dancing and twirling just like before," she said, according to the Boston Herald.

Fewer than 40 shark attacks take place in the US a year, the newspaper reported, citing data from the International Shark Attack File. According to the organization, fatal shark attacks are very rare in the US. It says the chance of dying from a lightning strike is 30 times greater than that of dying from a shark attack, according to the report. North Carolina has witnessed three fatal shark attacks, in 1935, 1957 and 2001.