The cameraman who witnessed Steve Irwin's final moments has recalled when he 'realised he had passed'.
Irwin's death in 2006 shook the world when it emerged that the conservationist had died after a tragic encounter with a stingray.
The Australian zookeeper, 44, was off the coast of his homeland in the Batt Reef when a stingray’s barb pierced his chest, fatally wounding him.
It was claimed by the cameraman that he was stabbed '100 times'.
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Irwin, also known as 'The Crocodile Hunter', was off the coast of Port Douglas, Queensland, with his long-time collaborator, cameraman, and diving partner Justin Lyons.
Lyons helped to capture some of the animal lover's iconic interactions with wildlife.
But on 4 September 2006, Irwin's time would come to an end while they were looking for tiger sharks.
There is a tape of his death somewhere as well, due to his pact with the crew to 'keep filming regardless of the situation'.
Lyons, who joined Irwin on many of his expeditions and worked with him for over 10 years, shared the horrific details of Irwin's fatal stingray attack.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Lyons said: "Steve wasn't one to sit around and wait, so I said 'let's jump in the boat and see what we can find'.
"We never wasted a minute. We were always shooting and because we had some spin-off shows, we used every frame of every shot."
While submerged in the water, the pair came across a large stingray. They weren't particularly concerned, having filmed with stingrays many times, saying: "We knew the behaviour. We weren't scared of them.
"We thought this was going to be a joy. We were swimming around [the stingray], he'd glide off and settle on the bottom."
Lyons recalled: "[Irwin] swam up right over his tail. Instead of swimming off, [the bull ray] propped himself on the front of its wings and pushed his rear end up and started madly stabbing with his tail towards Steve.
"The water boiled with bubbles, thrashing and whatnot. The entire time I was locked on Steve. I didn't know what was going on, I could see it was trying to stab Steve and he was pushing him away but it was over in about 10-15 seconds.
"The stingray swam off so I panned to film Steve swimming away.
"It wasn't until I panned back and the water around him was already filling with blood that I realised he had passed."
Lyons went on to share Steve's heartbreaking final moments.
He said: "Brian is covering this massive wound in Steve's chest. There's blood and fluid oozing from this massive hole. Steve is tensing up writhing in pain. Brian keeps saying: 'Think of your kids, you'll be right.'
"Steve looks directly at me and says: 'I'm dying.' I told him: 'No you're not, you'll be right just hang in there.'"
They arrived back at shore about 45 minutes later, but by that point Steve appeared to have already gone, and there was nothing they could do for him.
Additional words by Joshua Nair.
Topics: Steve Irwin, Celebrity, Animals
Anish Vij