Like a scene straight from a horror movie, swimmers at an Australian beach did not know how close they came to attack after a large shark was spotted dangerously close to them in a scary video posted on social media.
The drone footage was taken on December 28, at Hillary Dog Beach, just outside Perth in Western Australia, and shows a relatively large shark lurking in the water near swimmers near the shore.
The footage, which is stressful to watch, shows the shark in the clear blue waters just a few feet from unsuspecting beachgoers who were out enjoying the day in the cold water during the hot Australian summer day.
The most heart-pounding part of the drone footage was when the shark started charging toward one woman before it decided that it was not that hungry and lost interest in her, and made a U-turn.
The video can be seen here.
The footage was taken by Sam Wood, who had also gone to the beach to have fun. He told a local news outlet that he worried there would be an attack once he spotted the shark in the video.
The man said that he had taken his drone to the beach and was filming away from the shore. He quickly ran down to the beach once he realized that the predator was dangerously close to the people swimming in the water and that they had not noticed they were in danger.
Everyone in the water was quickly removed, and they avoided a potentially deadly attack.
The Meg, a Hollywood movie, had a similar scene as part of its climax. The 75-foot-long shark, dubbed the Megalodon, caught beachgoers and swimmers unaware as they made their movements in the water. The giant shark attacked the swimmers and killed some of them before it was lured away.
People who saw the local news outlet report on the sighting went on social media to comment on it, with many saying that it was not uncommon for sharks to be seen in Western Australia waters.
Some of the social media posters, who were Western Australia residents, said they had several sightings of the sea creatures. One of them said that he had seen six sharks over the last six months, which made him to decide not to swim anymore.
Another person wrote that it was no surprise because she had seen rays and sharks over five feet long several times come as close as two feet away from swimmers who had no clue that they were in danger.
A third person said that he loved the coastline but wouldn’t dare to go swimming in Western Australian waters because of the many shark sightings in the area.
Shark attacks in Western Australia are not uncommon. In October 2022, a man who had gone spearfishing was bitten by a shark that almost severed his hand. In December, a beach in Perth was shut down for two days after a tiger shark was seen in the area.
However, Australia is not the only place with a surge in shark sightings, as a similar situation has been happening in Florida over the last couple of years. In August, a viral video showed two sharks circling swimmers on a Florida beach as they frolicked in the water.