GET OUT OF THE WATER!
Shark panic on Brits’ hol beach
HOLIDAY Brits were ordered out of the sea at a packed Costa del Sol beach after bathers spotted a monster shark “like something out of the Jaws movie”.
BRITISH tourists were ordered out of the water at a packed Costa del Sol beach after bathers reported having spotted a shark in the sea.
Holidaymakers raced to get back to the shoreline in scenes reminiscent of the hit horror film Jaws after the alert was raised.
Spanish lifeguards on jet skis helped children from an inflatable water park near where the shark was spotted.
Meanwhile colleagues ran along the shoreline blowing whistles and ordering swimmers out of the water. Fuengirola beach was closed for five hours while patrol boats searched two miles of coastline.
Lorry driver John Staples, from London, said: “It was like something out of the Jaws film.
“There was a real commotion at the shoreline. Everyone tried to get out of the water as fast as they could.
“There were a lot of children on the beach. Many of the smaller ones were crying.”
Alarm
Authorities said they did the right thing, even though they believe the sighting may have been a false alarm.
Three people are thought to have spotted the shark.
In May, locals filmed a shark off the same beach, thought to be a blue shark or tintorera which is one of the most common in the Mediterranean.
The same type of shark was blamed for an attack on a 40-year-old holidaymaker in Elche, on the Costa Blanca, last month.
The victim was taken to hospital and had his hand wound stitched up. First aiders described the bite as large and said he had come out of the sea with blood streaming from the injury.
The drama happened at Elche’s Arenales del Sol beach.
On Sunday the red flag was kept in place for around two hours until 1.30pm and then bathers were allowed back in the water.
Last August Brit tourists were ordered off a Benidorm beach when a suspected barracuda bit a 10-year-old on the hip.
And in December tourist Cristina Ojeda-Thies was bitten by a shark off the popular winter destination of Gran Canaria.
She tweeted afterwards as she showed off the wounds to her arm: “Today I’ve had a face-to-face meeting with a shark. Things that happen when you swim in the Canaries in December.”