PHUKET: An eight-year-old boy of mixed Thai and Ukrainian heritage was attacked by a big fish, possibly a shark, while playing in the sea off Kamala beach in Kathu district on Sunday, a rescue unit of the Kamala tambon administration organisation (TAO) reported.
The attack left a long, deep cut in his right calf.
Rescuers arrived at the beach after the boy was brought ashore. He was given first aid before being admitted to the Bangkok Hospital Phuket for treatment.
Tourist police visited the boy's family and learned that he was Napat Chaiyarak Christenko, whose father was from Ukraine and his mother a Thai.
The father and mother were with him when he was attacked.
Doctors who examined the wound believed he had been bitten by a barracuda or seapike fish about 80-120 centimetres long.
But later Kongkiat Kittiwattawong, the Phuket Marine Biological Centre director, said the culprit might be a shark that mistook the boy's calf for a fish.
He said tooth marks on the leg showed that the boy might have been bitten by a blacktip reef shark or a bull shark, both of which are found in the Andaman Sea.
The two types of shark are normally spotted in surf zones hunting fish, he added.
Phuket deputy governor Pichet Panapong ordered beach guards to stay alert after the incident.
