Terrified Brit boy, 8, savaged by sharks on holiday as family rush to save child screaming ‘I don’t want to die’
A BRITISH boy of eight has been savaged by sharks on a family holiday in the Bahamas.
Finley Downer was attacked by at least three nurse sharks and had to be dragged to safety by his sister.
He was bitten on both legs and ended up with chunks of flesh hanging off.
Dad Michael, 44, said: “My son could have been killed. It was like a scene out of Jaws.”
Sales director Michael had flown his three children, Finley, Lily, nine, and Emily, 12, for a dream summer holiday last week.
They booked a five-island excursion which included guided swimming with iguanas, pigs and nurse sharks at Compass Cay.
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On a neighbouring island later in the tour, they saw sharks swimming among a crowd of people in a lagoon.
The children decided to join them — not aware they were feeding on scraps being thrown to them.
Michael said: “Suddenly, I heard a terrified scream and saw dozens circling Finley.
“There was so much blood. Bits of his leg were hanging off.
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“He kept saying, ‘Dad I don’t want to die. Dad I don’t want to go to heaven’.”
Finley was dragged out of the ocean by his sister Lilly, who had lifted him out of the water by his arms.
He was taken to the nearest clinic on a golf buggy.
Later his dad paid for a £2,000 flight to take him to Nassau for a three-hour operation to repair his wounds.
The family is now back home in Kettering, Northants, but Finley is still using a wheelchair and will be left scarred.
Michael is angry that tour guides told them the sharks were safe.
But the operator, Exuma Escapes, said the family went, without a guide, into a lagoon not used on its tour.
It added nurse sharks were docile bottom-feeders unless handled incorrectly.
