Daisy Phillipson
This is the horrifying moment a diver narrowly escapes a shark attack by inches. Check it out:
In the viral video, the man can be seen swimming in the water in Australia before the killer creature emerges from the depths.
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As he scrambles to get back on the boat, he screams while using a small cage to try and fend off the tiger shark.
While most people would be horrified at the situation, his pal behind the camera can be heard laughing at the predicament - what are friends for, eh?
The heart-stopping footage was shared by sea life TikTok page Deep Blue alongside the caption: “Escaped last time from shark attack.
“A diver suffering from a tiger shark attack, while trying to climb back into the boat. The scene unfolds in waters Snapper Rocks near the Gold Coast of Australia.”
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At the end of the clip, the man makes it safely back onto the boat while saying: “Are you f**king kidding me, mate.”
The video has received over nine million views at the time of writing, not to mention thousands of comments from people who are shocked at the men’s nonchalant attitude to the near miss.
“His mates laughing is soooo Aussie!” wrote one, while another said, “Total bro friends!! Laughing and recording your demise!”
A third added: “I knew this was Australia without even reading the description.”
Others vowed never to go in the sea again, with one person writing: “I would have just died of a heart attack.”
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Another who tagged their friend said: “See sis this is why I’m terrified of the ocean.”
A third commented: “Tiger shark. Not sure anyone knows just how close that was to a really, really bad day.”
While experts often reassure swimmers that shark attacks worldwide are rare, new statistics show that there have been 39 incidents so far in 2022, six of which were fatal.
Just this month two women in Egypt were killed within a distance of 600 metres by sharks, causing a number of beaches on the Red Sea coast to shut down.
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Other attacks around the world have occurred in Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, Australia and around the Pacific.
So far, Florida in the United States seems to be this year’s hotspot for shark attacks, with 11 so far, according to Tracking Sharks.
Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Programme for Shark Research, has a theory why that might be.
"Florida has more shark bites than most places because it has a long coastline relative to its surface area and much of this coastline is beach,” he explained.
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"The beaches attract a lot of tourists. Florida is also sub-tropical and usually has a healthy population of carcharhinid sharks which tend to be between 3-9 ft long.
"When you put it all together with lots of people in water where coastal sharks live, the probability of the sharks mistaking a swimmer's foot or arm for the bait fish they usually feed on increases.”
All that being said, it’s incredibly unlikely to be attacked by a shark, and incredibly unlucky if you are.
We’ve just got to show them the respect they deserve when we enter their habitat.