DRAMATIC video has surfaced of the terrifying moment a shark attacked a group of tourist divers in the Maldives.
The massive fish made a beeline for one diver before moving onto the next, smashing into each with its powerful head and snout.
A spearfishing guide from the Cayman Islands, Cameron Kirkconnell, shared the clip to his Instagram page as a reminder to his 126,000 followers to keep their wits about them while diving.
He captioned the video: "Maldives shark dive fun.
"I don’t want my insta to be full of these but this one was a great example of people put in a situation they thought was fine. It wasn’t."
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Mr Kirkconnell clarified that the video was not his own, but he was using it to call for a ban on tourists diving with sharks.
According to reports, the attack took place recently in the Maldives and involved divers who had little experience with sharks.
In the video, which was shared to Telegram by local news channel MvCrisis on February 3, the divers were reportedly filmed in the moments after attempting to free a shark tangled in a rope or net.
It is understood no one was badly injured.
Divers and diving fans flocked to the comment section of Mr Kirkconnell's video, lamenting the actions of those in the clip.
One person wrote: "And all they had to do was as touch his nose gently and redirect the beautiful creature."
Another said: "The shark is panicking it’s got something tangled around it. You can see it dragging the line. It’s freaking out and not looking where it’s going and hitting all the divers."
There are about 100 shark attacks around the world each year, with scores of both oblivious and risk-taking swimmers mauled by the fish.
Ninety-one people were bitten by sharks in 2023 and 10 of the attacks were fatal, according to a new report from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Recently, on December 28, a teenage boy was mauled to death in a horror shark attack off a popular South Australian beach.
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The young swimmer's body was pulled from the water near Ethel Beach in the Innes National Park about 1.30pm local time.
Emergency services rushed to the scene, but it was too late. His body was recovered from the water.
Researchers at the University of Florida found that great white, tiger, and bull sharks killed the majority of swimmers last year.
Two people were killed in California and Hawaii, with other confirmed deaths in the Bahamas, Egypt, Mexico, and New Caledonia.
Four people were killed in Australia in unprovoked shark attacks.
Director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's shark research program Gavin Naylor said that the number of bites that occurred last year were "within the range" of what was normal, but "the fatalities are a bit unnerving".
