A teenage boy is fighting for life in hospital after being bitten by a shark on Thursday Island off the Far North Queensland coast.

Emergency services were called to Cook Esplanade on the island just before 6.30pm yesterday after reports the boy had been bitten on the stomach by a shark.

They found the boy in his mid-teens with severe abdominal wounds after he was bitten while swimming.

He was rushed to Thursday Island Hospital, before being airlifted to Townsville University Hospital.

The boy remains in a critical condition.

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