Coast Guard evacuates 9-year-old boy to Miami after dog attack in the Bahamas

The U.S. Coast Guard evacuated a 9-year-old boy from the Bahamas after he was repeatedly attacked by several dogs on the beach Tuesday, the agency and Royal Bahamas Police Force said.

Read more Coast Guard evacuates 9-year-old boy to Miami after dog attack in the Bahamas

The boy was collecting sand outside a business in Bimini around 10 a.m. when the dogs set upon him, police said, biting his face, right thigh, right arm and his head.

A man who witnessed the attack chased the dogs off, and the boy, who is a U.S. citizen, was able to get back to the apartment where he and his mother were staying, according to police.

Paramedics rushed him to the Bimini Community Clinic, where doctors treating him concluded his injuries were serious and “potentially life-threatening,” police said in a statement.

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A Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry crew flew the boy to Air Station Miami in Opa-Locka at noon, police and the Coast Guard said. A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue ambulance took the boy to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the department said.

His condition was not immediately available.

According to Bahamian police, officers found the dogs’ owner. The agency said he is assisting officers in “locating, securing and removing the animals.”

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The incident remains under investigation.