FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Tennessee man was hospitalized after being bitten by a shark in the waters off Florida’s Panhandle.

The man told authorities that he was bait fishing Monday afternoon in waist-deep water off Okaloosa Island when he was bitten.

Lt. Mike Simmons of the Okaloosa Island Fire Department says “it was definitely a shark” based on the bite marks on the man’s foot.

Simmons tells the Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/1nrSCVZ) that the man described a gray animal roughly 4 feet long. He says the shark bit him with enough force that “he felt like his leg was being pulled out of the socket.”

Authorities say the man needed stitches at a hospital but did not have life-threatening injuries. His name was not released.

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Information from: Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.), http://www.nwfdailynews.com

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