An American boy was raced to hospital in the Bahamas after being attacked by a shark at a popular tourist beach. 

The boy, aged 12, was attacked at the Exuma Cays area around 3:30pm on Tuesday in front of his horrified family, Royal Bahamas Police said. 

The extent of the boy's injuries are not clear, but reports said he was listed in stable condition when he was transported to hospital in New Providence. 

The Exuma Cays are a popular coastline of beaches known for swimming and scuba diving among tourists. 

The area has also seen a number of shark attacks in recent years, including in 2018 when American boy Asher Jones was attacked by a nurse shark on-camera. 

Across the Bahamas, a range of over 700 Caribbean islands, the coastlines have one of the world's highest rates of shark attacks. 

Shark encounters in the area remain rare, however, and the last Americans to be attacked in the Bahamas came in February 2025. 

In that attack, friends Rileigh Decker, 20, and Summer Layman, 24, were viciously mauled by several sharks in Bimini Bay. Both sustained injuries but survived.