A MUM did not realise she captured the horror moment an elderly man was mauled to death by a mystery beast while playing with her daughter.
Canadian national Joseph 'Jeff' Bynens, 76, was swimming in the sea when he was attacked off a beach in Mexico.
His partner was also attacked and is currently being treated in hospital.
Jeff was rescued from the water with most of his leg missing and died of excessive blood loss on the beach in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, paramedics claim.
The Canadian tourist was reportedly killed by a shark, but his injuries led marine biologists to highly suspect that it may have been a crocodile.
Man fined £165 after outraging the internet by dying puppy to look like Pikachu
There is a crocodile farm in the area and crocodiles have been known to visit the beach, Mirror reports.
Young mum Marlene Luviano was playing on the beach with her daughter when she apparently captured the victim’s final moments.
Her footage could possibly shed light on what animal attacked the 76-year-old.
Marlene said she asked her father to film her playing with their toddler daughter as it was her birthday.
“We were enjoying the morning on the beach and that’s when we heard something in the sea,” she explained.
The clip shows the pair playing on the shoreline before Marlene realises something is not right and leads her daughter away from the shore.
She then asks to stop filming.
In the background, Jeff is seen swimming to a buoy and waving his arm in the air for help before being dragged under the waves, presumably by the marine beast.
By the time the victim was rescued from the sea, he had already “bled to death”, according to Marlene.
“When they dragged him out of the sea, the wound was already very visible," she said.
Dog who 'always melts hearts' with his smile hopes to find a loving family
“I noticed there was no longer any blood coming out.”
Authorities are still investigating whether the Canadian tourist was killed by a shark or a crocodile.
Tourists were previously alerted to a crocodile’s presence at Palmar Beach in central Ixtapa, and visitors to nearby La Ropa Beach recently reported seeing something in the sea at Zihuatanejo Bay.
Local authorities have since launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the attack and evaluate security measures in the coastal area.
Cops have also deployed drones to try and identify if a shark or a crocodile killed Jeff and injured his partner, The Mirror reports.
Lifeguards have banned people from going into the water while the search goes on and purple flags were erected to indicate the presence of something dangerous in the water.
According to several reports, Jeff's attack took place at about 9:15 am, just minutes after Valerie Haurowitz, 52, from Los Angeles, California, was similarly attacked.
She is reportedly in a stable condition.
Just 10 days earlier, a mother was killed by a shark in Melaque, located west of Mexico City.
María Fernanda Martínez Jiménez went into the sea with her five-year-old child when the shark bit off most of her left leg.
The 26-year-old was carried to the shore by three beachgoers, but she bled to death on the sand just minutes later.
Her child was unscathed in the shark attack.
