THIS is the shocking moment a massive tiger shark dubbed "Big Mama" chomps down on a diver's head before pals kick the beast away.
Real-time underwater footage shows the hungry shark circling a group of divers before it goes in for the kill.
At first, the shark appears harmless as it moves around the group and eventually gets pushed away.
But moments later it returns and attacks the group of 12 divers, clenching one by the head, according to the Fiji Times.
The others frantically try kicking and punching the shark away until it eventually releases its prey and swims off.
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Other drivers say tour groups regularly play "Russian Roulette" with the shark, which often approaches divers and has to be pushed away with sticks and poles, according to Beach Grit.
The incident took place off Beqa Island, Fiji, when a tour group took tourists out for a dive in 2021.
A close friend of the victim, who was a tourist visiting from Malaysia, told the Fiji Times the tiger shark was roughly four to five metres in length and unexpectedly changed it swim path to attack them.
"The shark turned to bite the divers and my friend was the unlucky one," the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said at the time.
"At that time all the dive masters rushed to push her away, but it was already too late.
"His head was in the shark’s mouth and later the dive master managed to kick her away.
"While the shark was leaving, the victim’s mask and hoodie were pulled off."
The victim was sent to a local clinic with eight centimetre-long and 0.5 centimetre-deep wounds on his head, according to a medical report.
The tour company has since apologised over the incident.
SHARK FRENZY
This comes as the number of shark attacks hit over 100 last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File (ISAF) 2022.
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ISAF confirmed that out of 108 cases, over half were unprovoked bites and 32 were provoked.
America has overtaken Australia for the number of attacks as the States recorded a whopping 41 unprovoked attacks last year, compared to Australia's 9.
The 2022 data also stated that Egypt and South Africa each reported two incidents, all of which were fatal.
And Brazil, New Zealand and Thailand all reported single incidents in 2022.
Swimming and wading lovers seem to be the prime targets, accounting for 43 per cent of victims last year - breaking away from recent trends where surfers and water boarders were the top shark attack victims.
However, despite the records of mauling's by the ferocious beasts and signs warning of attacks on beaches in the US and Australia, swimmers are still putting themselves at risk.
In 2022 five people were killed in shark attacks - a drastic drop from the nine reported deaths in 2021.
Experts insist shark attacks remain rare however, and the figures are roughly in line with previous numbers over the last decade.
According to the researchers, there is only a one in 4,332,817 chance of an individual dying as a result of a shark attack in their lifetime.
But this follows the story of a diver who had his head ripped off by an enormous great white in January.
Manuel Lopez was scuba diving off the coast of Mexico when he was killed by the 19-foot beast as horrified fishermen looked on, according to the Tracking Sharks website.
Another great white attacked some fishermen's boat after stalking them for an hour and a half.
Peter Galea and his pal Joseph were out fishing off the coast of Portland in Victoria, Australia, when the two-and-a-half metre shark appeared.
A tourist was also mauled to death by what was believed to be a tiger shark last month while swimming in New Caledonia, Australia.
