An eight-year-old boy from Australia has vowed to go ‘back in the water’ after being attacked by a shark while out enjoying a fishing trip.
Manni Alam was at sea with his dad Radwan and family friend Moe Alsayed, at Lady Musgrave Island in the Great Barrier Reef, north of Brisbane, when he was attacked by the deadly fish.
Footage on TikTok shows the wet-suited youngster hanging off the side of the boat, proudly showing off his latest catch – a coral trout – when a shark comes from underneath the vessel and lunges at his chest and armpit area, giving him a small nip.
While the clip ended abruptly after the shark launched out of the water, Manni’s dad revealed to shocked viewers later on that his son had survived the ordeal.
Responding to comments asking if the boy was OK, the dad said, “yeah he’s fine, I will post the rest of the video soon”.
Thankfully Manni was not seriously hurt in the incident and played down what could have been a nastier attack, saying: “It felt just like a little bite, a bit on the chest, but that’s it.
“I caught this huge trout and I just wanted to show it off on TikTok. So I went in the water and I was holding the trout, but then the shark attacked me.”
He added : “I’m going to go back in the water.”
Radwan was the one who filmed the incident and he said: “He just wanted to show me his beautiful coral trout he had just caught, but as I was capturing the footage, this shark just lunged at him… and man he lives to tell it.”
According to Moe, the potentially horrific attack was just ‘another day at the office’ for the sea-farers.
Viewers couldn’t believe how casually the boy handled the situation.
“The kid just looks as if to say ‘you right there bro’,” one wrote in a comment to the video.
“That kid was not the least concerned. Cool as a cucumber,” another said.
Others were in sheer disbelief at what happened.
“Wow, looks the shark was going for the fish, but he lifted it out of the water just before the shark got there,” one said.
There were 15 reported shark attacks in the waters off Australia in 2022, with one proving fatal, back in February when swimmer Simon Nellist was killed (there were three in 2021). All of these occurred in either Western Australia or New South Wales.
