Huge Shark Spotted Swimming Dangerously Close To Popular Spanish Tourist Beach

Terrified holidaymakers have been forced to flee the sea on a beach in Menorca after an 8ft blue shark was spotted swimming just offshore.

The huge fish was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea just off a popular tourist beach called Arenal d'en Castell yesterday afternoon.

It then proceeded to hang around in the waters near the beach for several hours. Luckily everyone managed to clear out of the water and nobody was hurt by the shark.

It goes without saying that swimmers were forbidden to enter the water for the rest of the afternoon (fair play to anyone who fancied getting in anyway).

The blue shark - also known as a tintorera in Spain - was captured swimming frighteningly close to the beach by several holidaymakers on their mobile phones.

In some of the footage the tourists can be heard shouting 'it's coming' before questioning whether the shark was dead or not. It wasn't and it eventually went about its business and moved on.

To be fair to it, the shark was probably not that interested in eating any humans and Francesa Ametller, mayor of the Es Mercedes area of the island, said that the animal did not seem aggressive in any way.

This is not the first time that sharks have caused havoc around the Spanish seas in recent times. Last year in Cala Major, Majorca, more bathers had to get out of the ocean as a blue shark was spotted heading towards families that included children.

Once again, nobody was hurt.

However, in 2016 a bather was actually bitten by a shark - again, thought to be a blue shark - in Elche, in the south of Spain.

The 40-year-old victim was bitten on the hand and suffered a large wound. He was rushed to hospital.

Despite this incident, blue sharks are usually not interested in biting humans. There are only 13 recorded incidents of tintorera sharks biting people, of which four proved to be fatal.

Meanwhile, in Britain, a huge 9ft long porbeagle shark was recently caught off the coast of Devon. Weeks before that a fisherman was bitten by a shark of the same type after being landed on a boat.

Max Berryman suffered deep leg wounds and was taken to hospital where his injuries were treated.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...

Featured Image Credit: Solarpix

Topics: News, Spain, Holiday, shark

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a freelance journalist and LADbible contributor. He graduated from University of London with a BA in Philosophy before studying for a Masters in Journalism at the University of Salford. He has previously written for the M.E.N Group as well as working for several top professional sports clubs. Contact him on [email protected]

@TPWagwim