A 10-year-old boy who was attacked by a shark off the coast of Coral Bay, in WA's north-west, has described how he saw a shadow moving "faster and faster" before the animal bit him on the leg.
Jackson Bartlett was bitten on the foot by a suspected two-metre bronze whaler shark on Friday morning, about 75 metres from shore at Five Finger Reef.
The boy and his family were on holiday from Sydney.
"I was just snorkelling with my dad and then I saw this shadow," he said.
"We did the snorkelling with the whale sharks a few days before and I thought since I saw a dugong snorkelling with the whale sharks … I thought it might have been a dugong at first.
"But then it came closer and got faster and faster.
"And then I thought it might have been a reefy [reef shark], but then it tried to bite me."
Jackson said the shark initially missed when it tried to bite him, before returning to attack his leg.
Jackson said the shark then swam past him and his father.
"I called out to Dad and said "shark" and he was looking at it, and then I showed him my big sore.
"Lucky there were some doctors on the beach. They jumped in, swam out and brought me in [to shore]."
Ambulance officers transported Jackson to the Coral Bay nursing post before the Royal Flying Doctor Service brought him to Perth.
"I was bleeding. At the moment, I thought I was going to die because it was really scary," he said.
However, the 10-year-old said he planned to get back in the water.
"I reckon I'll start from deep pools and go in the shallow water at the beaches … and then go back surfing.
"I just love the ocean.
The beach at Five Finger Reef was closed for 24 hours after the incident.
