A shark “grabbed” a 10-year-old boy from a fishing boat off Australia on Friday, but swam after his father jumped to save him, authorities said. The boy was taken to hospital in stable condition with lacerations and cuts after the attack off the coast of the island state of Tasmania, the local government reported.
The boy was accompanied by his father and two other men who were fishing three miles from shore when the shark “caught him from the boat,” he said in a statement.
“The boy, who was wearing a personal flotation device, suffered lacerations to his arm and other cuts to his chest and head,” Ambulance Tasmania said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Australia has one of the world’s largest incidences of shark attacks and there have been five fatal killings in the country so far this year.
The most recent was a 15-year-old surfer killed last week on the country’s east coast. In April, a shark fatally 23-year-old Australian wildlife worker maimed at the Great Barrier Reef.
Earlier this week, a 29-year-old woman was bathing in Queensland when she was attacked by an unidentified creature in the water, suffering cuts and a possible ankle fracture.
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