A boy has survived a terrifying shark attack by kicking the predator in the head.
Napat Chaiyarak Christenko was swimming in the sea off the coast of Phuket, in Thailand on Sunday, when the attack took place.
The eight-year-old was in the water with his dad, when he suddenly started screaming and thrashing at something attacking his leg.
Napat told police that after trying to kick himself free of the shark, he reached below the waves and hit in on the head.
After escaping the creature, Napat’s terrified parents pulled him from the water as blood gushed from his right calf.
The emergency services were called and paramedics rushed Napat to the Bangkok Hospital in Phuket for treatment.
Napat – who remained calm while travelling in the ambulance – told doctors the bite on his leg was ‘the most painful thing’ he had ever experienced.
‘I felt a pain in my leg and looked down and saw the shark biting me,’ he said.
‘It was the most painful thing ever. I punched it to make it leave me alone.’
Doctors examined Napat’s wound and initially suspected he had been attacked by a barracuda that, based on the bite marks, was estimated to be about 80-120 centimetres long.
However, marine and shark specialists checked the wound and later determined Napat had been bitten by either a blacktip reef shark or a bull shark, which are often found in the Andaman Sea.
They believe cloudy water may have obscured the shark’s vision causing it to mistake Napat’s leg for a fish.
Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, the director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, said the ‘very violent’ attack had occurred during the breeding season.
‘Sharks are found in surf zones and will normally hunt fish. It might have mistaken the boy’s calf as a fish and bit it,’ he said.
‘The boy is very brave. He told us that he punched the shark while it was attacking him.’
The environmentalist said he believed the wounds were ‘definitely caused by a shark’.
‘The wounds were caused by a shark as both upper and lower teeth were used in combination,’ Dr Kittiwattanawong added.
‘It was a sharp wound on both sides, with both upper and lower teeth snapping at the same time.
‘The shark came in for food and thought the boy was food, therefore biting his leg. But when it took a bite and realised it was not food it did not attack again.’
Following the incident, Kamala district officials have rushed to reassure tourists the waters are safe by installing a warning sign near the scene and arranging for surveillance officers to patrol the area.
They said shark attacks in Thailand are ‘extremely rare’.
The website, Shark Attack Data, which tracks global shark attacks in a bid to increase understanding of when, how and why sharks interact with humans has recorded five unprovoked attacks in Thailand since 1966.
Of the five attacks, a non-fatal attack took place in Phuket in 2015, another occurred off the coast of Rayong in 2001 and third took place in an unknown location in 1966.
Two fatal unprovoked shark attacks have been recorded in Thailand, one in an unknown location in southern Thailand in 1979 and a second in Phang nga Province in 2000.
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