It's unclear whether a 12-year-old boy will get the fingers he lost to the auger blades of a Zamboni ice-cleaning machine successfully reattached.

"It looks like it's pretty severe," Const. Tony Vella of the Toronto Police Service told ctvtoronto.ca on Tuesday.

The boy has lost three or four fingers and underwent surgery Tuesday morning after Monday night's incident.

Police say the boy was something of a "rink rat" at Flemingdon Arena, near Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East.

At about 9:30 p.m. on Monday, the boy entered the back of the building and found the Zamboni, which had its key in the ignition.

The boy sat down, turned the Zamboni on, reached back to the auger and got his finger caught.

The machine cut off his index, middle and ring fingers.

The boy is in Sick Kids Hospital.

"Hopefully he's be fortunate enough to get some fingers attached, but it's sort of unclear how many will be attached, if any," Vella said.