Boy, 8, attacked by normally docile sharks during holiday visit to lagoon, needed 3-hour operation

Finley Downer, 8, from Kettering, England, was attacked by sharks while swimming in the Bahamas. His dad said was "like a scene out of 'Jaws,'" The Sun reported.

• An eight-year-old boy was attacked by several sharks in the Bahamas, per reports.
• His father told The Sun that the attack looked like a "scene out of Jaws."
• The child flew to Nassau for a three-hour operation, according to The Sun.

A child needed a three-hour operation after he was attacked by sharks in the Bahamas while on holiday, according to reports.

Finley Downer, 8, suffered flesh wounds after a number of nurse sharks bit him on both legs while he was swimming in a lagoon last week, Sky News reported.

His father, Michael Downer, told The Sun: "My son could have been killed. It was like a scene out of Jaws."

He described how he heard a "terrified scream" after the attack and saw "so much blood" and bits of flesh floating in the water.

Finley's older sister, Lily, dragged him out of the water to safety, Sky News said.

The boy was rushed to a nearby clinic on a golf buggy before his father paid for a £2,000 ($2,436) flight to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, for a three-hour operation, per The Sun.

The family has returned to their home in Kettering, England, but the boy now has to use a wheelchair and remains scarred, The Sun said.

The father told the newspaper that he is angry that local tour guides said it was safe to swim among the sharks.

Exuma Escapes, the tour operator, told The Sun that the family went into a lagoon, not used on its tours, without a guide. Exuma Escapes did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The sharks are believed to have been nurse sharks, slow-moving bottom-dwellers, which National Geographic describes as "for the most part, harmless to humans." The sharks will bite "defensively" if bothered by divers who assume they are docile, National Geographic said.