11-Year-Old Boy Bitten By Shark While Swimming In Florida

A Canadian boy was allegedly attacked by a shark Wednesday morning while he was enjoying his vacation in Florida.

Christian Mariani survived the encounter with “very minor injuries”, officials said.

The 11-year-old Mariani explained that he was swimming in “about knee-deep water on his way out of the ocean” when the animal approached him.

“The shark came and bit my right foot,” he added, describing the feeling as akin to that of a human teeth.

While they were on their way to the hospital, Mariani told reporters that he felt “it clamp down and then it let go... and then I ran out screaming.”

Mariani said that his father and older brother was in the water with him when the shark attack happened.

Stephen Gollan said that at least one lifeguard rushed to the scene after hearing the screams.

The Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief added that Mariani suffered a puncture wound on his foot “and didn't appear to be life-threatening.”

The source also shared a report by The South Florida Sun Sentinel and The Miami Herald that stated that the attacked happened around 9:00AM and that Mariani's family was staying at the Ritz-Carlton just across the beach.

He was discharged later that afternoon after being rushed to the Boward Health Medical Center.

Mariani needed 17 stitches to close the wound left by the shark. Although small, the victim still felt the pain.

“It was pretty painful. Like, really painful,” he said to reporters.

Although Mariani knows that there's a very low change for a person to get bit by a shark, he considered himself “more lucky than unlucky” to have survived the run-in with only minor injuries.

Dollan said that the shark must have mistaken Mariani's toes as “small fish” considering that they see “a lot of fish bait that are moving down the coast” at this time of year.

When there are more small fish, there are more bigger fish, he added while explaining the mistaken identity.

One of the sources said that there have been 66 “unprovoked shark attacks” worldwide last year. The said number decreased from a reported 88 attacks in 2017, with the United States having the most number of attacks with 32 confirmed incidents last year.

This too went down from 53 in 2017, it added.

Mariani's attack was the seventh in a string of shark encounter in Florida in a little over a week, and the first incident in Fort Lauderdale this year.