Dramatic moment shark causes panic on Alicante beach and bathers try to run to safety
Dramatic moment when a shark causes a panic on Alicante beach and swimmers try to get to safety in waist-deep waters, causing a woman to have a panic attack
- The incident happened at 10 am today on the beach of Aguamarina, south of Alicante
- Initial reports indicated it was a tintorera, or blue shark, about seven feet long
This is the dramatic moment when swimmers try to make it to safety through waist high water as a shark approaches the shoreline of a beach on the Costa Blanca.
Lifeguards blew their whistles to warn locals and holidaymakers about the big fish and urged them to get out of the sea as soon as possible.
A woman, believed to be an elderly person who was rescued from the water by Good Samaritans, reportedly had a panic attack after realizing the shark was next to her.
The incident happened at around 10am this morning on Aguamarina beach in Orihuela Costa, south of Alicante.
Initial reports indicated it was a tintorera, or blue shark, measuring about two meters in length.
This is the dramatic moment when swimmers try to make it to safety through waist high water as a shark approaches the shoreline off a beach on the Costa Blanca
Initial reports indicated it was a tintorera, or blue shark, measuring about two meters in length
Local police were among the emergency services who unsuccessfully searched for it and it is clear that it swam back into the sea unseen.
The shark sightings coincided with the start of lifeguard duty on the beach.
A blue shark was blamed for an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche near Alicante in July 2016.
The 40-year-old victim was rushed to hospital and received stitches to a wound in his hand.
First aiders described the bite as “major” and said he emerged from the sea with blood flowing from the injury.
In August 2018, tourists fled the sea in panic after a blue shark, one of the most common in Spain, showed up off the overcrowded Mallorcan beach of Calas de Mallorca on the island’s east coast.
In April, a six-foot-long shark, also believed to be a tintorera, was filmed in the surf off Mallorca’s southeast coast at a nearby beach called Cala Llombards.
The images of it in shallow water showed that it was clearly disoriented.
Two swimmers were going to help an elderly woman out of the water when the shark circled close to them. She would have had a panic attack
Panic swimmers sprinted out of the water as the shark, which eventually swam back to deeper water, ended up close to shore
The incident happened this morning around 10 am on the beach of Aguamarina in Orihuela Costa, south of Alicante
A Spanish woman watched as its telltale fin appeared above the water’s surface and moved in the clear water towards the shoreline before almost stranding on the sand.
You could hear her say as it was knocked on its side in the swallow water and its tail whipped around trying to get back out to sea, “This one is going to get stuck here.
“We have to get it out of the water, it stays where it is.”
His efforts eventually paid off and it was filmed swimming back to deeper water before disappearing.
Last week, Russian tourist Vladimir Popov, 23, was filmed being attacked by a tiger shark and dragged underwater off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
His body parts were later removed from the predator’s abdomen after it was bludgeoned to death by beachgoers.