Terrifying moment giant shark clamps its jaws around a diver’s head in surprise attack off paradise island

Terrifying footage has captured the moment a huge shark clamped its jaws around a diver’s head during a surprise attack from a paradise island.

The clip, filmed in the idyllic Maldives, shows a swimmer floating innocently in the blue water while looking at the camera.

But out of nowhere and with shocking speed, the shadowy figure of a huge shark appears behind the diver.

In a heartbreaking moment, the sneaky shark quickly opens its jaws before engulfing the diver’s head.

For a few seconds, the swimmer’s head remains in the predator’s mouth as it shakes the marine researcher back and forth in an attempt to gnaw his head off.

The diver can be seen kicking his feet and spreading his arms as he desperately tries to escape the hungry shark.

Miraculously, the swimmer had a lucky escape as the beastly fish unlocked its jaws and swam away, freeing the diver from the hair-raising attack.

The diver then scrambled away to the water’s surface and waved his hands at the brave cameraman as a warning that they too should flee the scene.

You see the shark clamp its jaws around the diver’s head

The swimmer frantically tried to escape the beast’s jaws by kicking his feet and waving his arms

The heartbreaking footage showed the diver’s head completely ensconced in the shark’s mouth

The diver miraculously escaped as the shark swam away

Both swimmers were seen speeding their way up and out of the dangerous water, until the chilling footage ends.

The Maldives are known for its white-sand beaches, turquoise lagoons and coral reefs, but are also home to around thirty species of sharks, according to sources. Samudra Maldives.

These include scalloped hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, whale sharks and gray reef sharks; it is not immediately clear which shark species appeared in the footage.

Many hotels and resorts on the island offer guests swimming with sharks as a guided activity.

‘Most sharks near the Maldives are friendly, and shark attacks are rare. But encounters with tiger sharks and nurse sharks in the Maldives can be fatal if precautions are not taken,” the holiday website explains.

Diving and snorkeling with the animals is also a popular activity among tourists, but ‘not all friendly sharks swim on the surface, so you will need to book an experience that allows you to dive into the sea and see sharks such as gray reef sharks or whitetip reef sharks’.

It comes after a surfer’s leg was completely severed during a vicious shark attack in Hawaiian waters earlier this month.

Kenji Nonoka, 61, was surfing at Waiehu Beach Park in Maui, but as he sat on his board in the clear water around 7 a.m., a shark swam up and bit his leg — causing it to sink from the knee was severed.

The surfer, who was still alert after the attack, was able to swim back to shore with the help of others before Maui police responded to the scene.

But immediately after his surgery, he reportedly told his loved ones, “I still love the ocean!” according to his GoFundMe page.

In September, a woman died after being attacked by a shark on a British-flagged catamaran while being rushed to a hospital in the Canary Islands.

It was said that her leg was bitten off by the animal while she was on a catamaran in international waters.

And in August, a teenager was beheaded in a horror shark attack after swimming off the Jamaican coast.

Jahmari Reid’s body was reportedly found without a head and with his left arm bitten off.