String or terrifying shark sightings on British beach spreads fear for holidaymakers

THE sense of terror was palpable on the beaches of Dorset yesterday after giant sharks were spotted cruising the coastline.

But brave Sunman Nick Pisa donned his wetsuit, took a deep breath and waded into the waves to prove it was safe to go back in the water.

As reported in yesterday’s Sun, the beach at Boscombe was evacuated in scenes straight out of 1975 film Jaws on Wednesday after a sighting close to swimmers. 

And a dad claimed his son was lucky to be alive after what he believed was a shark brushed past his leg in a terrifying encounter in the sea at Bournemouth on Tuesday.

Alan Hayward, 48, was watching his children, Henry, 11, and Mollie, eight, playing in the water when they started running towards him, shouting, “Run for your life”.

Henry said he felt something big brush against him while they were playing in the water — and Alan thinks a family pic he took shows a fin slicing through the surf. The family from Oakton, Kent, had travelled to Boscombe for a day trip as part of a week away.

'Run forour lives'

Alan told The Sun: “We decided to take the kids down to the beach for the day and it wasn’t until later on that we saw online the beach was closed. And then we looked through our photos and saw the fin going through the water.

“Henry was in the water and he came running out with his sister, and she was shouting, ‘Let’s run for our lives’, and he said something had brushed past him.

“We laughed at him just thinking it was a bit of seaweed. It wasn’t until we got home that we were looking through our photos and we saw a shark, or what looks like a shark in the background.

“I just thought, ‘What’s that?’ and then when we zoomed in and we could see the dorsal fin. He was extremely lucky to be honest. I think he’s lucky to be alive.”

An experienced sea fisherman has also described how he lost his rod to a suspected shark minutes before the Wednesday beach terror.

Darren Tapper, 54, said the monster pulled the rod out of his hands and almost dragged him in with it.

He said: “I was pulling a lure back into shore and something grabbed it. I almost turned over in my kayak. I spun around and saw a big shadow.

“I’ve never heard of a shark in these waters so it was the last thing on my mind. It’s a bit of a thrill to think I escaped its clutches.”

Meanwhile, fishing charter boat skipper Tom Walker, 30, revealed he had caught a porbeagle and a thresher shark just ten miles along the coast at Christchurch.

He told The Sun: “My hunch is the shark spotted at Boscombe was probably one of the two I caught on Tuesday off the coast.

“We let them go and they swam off but people need to know they are very big and powerful.

“These sharks are moving closer to shore in search of food as their primary food source of mackerel is getting so scarce. They could do you quite serious damage.”

Source: Read Full Article