WARNING: Graphic images
A teenager has been left unable to walk after being "eaten" by unknown sea creatures in the water at a Melbourne beach on Saturday night.
Sam Kanizay, 16, was soaking his legs at Dendy Street Beach to cool down after football on Saturday night when he felt his legs tingling.
But after coming out of the water his legs were covered in tiny sores and bleeding out.
Mr Kanizay said the injuries were a "freak incident" and has since received a biopsy and a number of stitches as medical experts try to piece together what happened.
"I didn't feel anything untoward when I was in the water," he told the Herald Sun. "It was cold, so I expected my legs to go numb.
"I would have been in there for maybe 30 minutes and didn't notice anything until I looked down to put my thongs on."
That is when, Mr Kanizay said, the bleeding wouldn't stop.
"Blood covered both of my feet and I was leaving little pools (of blood) everywhere. I thought I had maybe stood on a rock, but the amount of blood quickly told me that wasn't it," he said.
After the incident, Mr Kanizay walked home before he was swiftly rushed to hospital.
"He actually waited out the front and called out for help because he didn't want to bleed inside the house," mother Jane Kanizay said.
"We tried washing the blood off, but quickly realised we couldn't stem the bleeding so we took him to Sandringham Hospital."
Doctors were left puzzled by the injuries with "pin-sized holes" seeping blood on his legs and feet.
One nurse advised the bites could be from sea lice, but it was no more than a "guess".
The following day Sam's father Jarrod drove the teen to hospital for further testing.
Doctors at Dandenong Hospital were still struggling to contain the bleeding into Sunday afternoon.
The Kanizay family are doing some of their own investigative work, however.
"They were all on Google afterwards, hypothesising as to what happened," he said.
"They pretty much had 10 different hypotheses but nothing yet.
"My dad is going to tie a piece of meat to a stick and see if anything goes to eat it," he said.
Mr Kanizay told Daily Mail Australia on Sunday night the bleeding had finally stopped, and he had high hopes for a quick and full recovery.
"I'll definitely go out swimming there again," he said.
"Plenty of people go for a swim in there so it's probably just a one-off thing".