Bone-chilling new footage shows the chaotic moments after a shark attacked a 10-year-old boy in a Bahamas shark tank — with the predator circling his victim as his blood fills the pool.
The boy had been taken into the tank by staff as part of the “Walking with Sharks” excursion at the Atlantis Bahamas Resort, which offers 30 minutes of fun for children aged 10 and up with nurse and reef sharks for $110.
What was promised to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience quickly turned violent when one of the sharks darted between the boy’s legs, forcing him to straddle the giant fish, which then turned and sunk its teeth into his right calf, video obtained by TMZ shows.
The 10-year-old frantically shot straight to the surface of the tank and was helped to the safety of land by his father, who bravely dove into the shark-infested pool to push his son to safety.
The sharks continued to whizz past the profusely bleeding youngster as he desperately kicked his injured leg to the surface.
“Did that just bite him?” the boy’s mother can be heard asking before screaming: “Oh my gosh, that’s my son! Call 911!”
The boy cried in pain the second he broke the surface of the water, as his mother and other children shrieked in horror.
Several times, the fins of the sharks swept along the surface, through the swarm of the blood the boy left behind.
The boy’s parents carried him out of the water and rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was found to be in stable condition.
Just moments before the terrifying incident, the boy had been walking near the shark tank with a chaperone as part of the on-site shark encounter experience offered by the resort, witnesses told TMZ.
The 10-year-old was just one of many in the tank who donned a large white helmet, heavy oxygen tank and flippers to watch the sharks circle the tank, but the predators seemed to zero in on the smallest one seconds before attacking.
The full extent of his injuries, and why the sharks targeted the boy, is not clear.
Atlantis Bahamas Resort and the excursion’s organizers, Blue Adventures, swiftly shut down the tanks in the aftermath of the attack.
In a statement, Blue Adventures, the organizers of the event said: “We have begun a thorough internal investigation and are fully cooperating with the authorities.”
“Incidents like this involving interactions with marine life, even with the species of sharks included in this experience, are rare and never acceptable.”
The terrifying accident comes as the US embassy in the Bahamas issued a stark travel advisory against traveling to the island nation after the murders of 18 tourists, some of which occurred in broad daylight.
