It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime for British scuba diver Dan White.
But he now looks back in horror after his dream dive turned into a hellish nightmare when he watched a white-tip shark sink its teeth into a fellow diver’s leg.
And while the horrific incident happened seven years ago, the bloodcurdling moment remains ingrained in Dan’s memory.
Back in 2018, Dan and his partner Shaunie Thomas were completing a deep-diver certification in the Brother Islands off the coast of Egypt.
The couple were only five metres deep below water when Dan spotted a shark swimming towards his diving group.
Intrigued by the sea creature, he decided to start filming with his GoPro as the animal interacted with other divers.
The shark appeared harmless at first, swimming above the divers, but it soon made its way towards a male member of the group.
But as Dan’s video shows, things took a turn for the worse when the shark began acting strangely, with footage capturing how the animal circled the diver and tried to bite his flippers.
Back in 2018, scuba diver Dan White captured the moment a shark tore into a man’s leg off the coast of Egypt
Horrific footage taken by Dan shows how a shark appears and begins to interact with divers
But as Dan’s video shows, things took a turn for the worse when the shark began acting strangely and tried to bite one of the divers’ flippers
The shark then swam away as the diver managed to kick him off, but the beast then took interest in another man and ferociously tore into his leg with its pointed teeth, turning the crystal blue waters red with blood as it ripped off part of his calf.
Appearing on the documentary titled Why Sharks Attack in 2023, Dan described the horrifying moment: ‘He bit onto the divers leg, latched on and they ended up going end to end, almost like a cartwheel.
‘It was crazy, it wouldn’t let go for what felt like forever and it ended up tearing off his calf muscle in the leg’.
‘There was a big plume of blood in the water…Another diver started screaming. You could hear her screaming. It was horrifying to listen to’, Dan recalled.
The man grappled with the beast as it gnawed on his limbs, but miraculously managed to free himself from the creature’s razor-sharp jaws.
Despite being several metres underwater, the man’s haunting scream can be heard in the clip.
The victim was ultimately pulled out from the water and given emergency first aid on the dive boat and taken to hospital where his leg was saved.
The beast then took interest in another man and ferociously tore into his leg with its teeth
Despite being several metres underwater, the man’s haunting scream can be heard in the clip
The shark is said to have been a white-tip (file photo)
Dan’s harrowing encounter with the bloodthirsty sea creature is just one example in a flurry of vicious shark attacks over the years.
Last week, a Canadian tourist had both of her hands ripped off by a shark after she went for a dip in the sea.
The 55-year-old woman had been holidaying in the Caribbean island of Turks and Caicos earlier this month when the predator, believed to be a seven-foot bull shark, launched its vicious attack.
The shark reportedly bumped into the helpless woman’s legs before circling around her and biting her thigh.
But when the woman put her hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark bit off both of her hands, one at mid-forearm and the other at the wrist.
The woman’s horrified husband is said to have rushed to help her, placing himself between his wife and the shark and managing to wrestle the beast and get it away from her ‘until she walked out of the water and collapsed on the beach’.
Harrowing pictures show how a crowd then gathered around the injured woman after she made it back to the beach, with cloths being held onto her arms as they apparently tried to stem the bleeding.
The severely injured victim was given first aid on the beach before paramedics took her to a local hospital for treatment.
The victim was ultimately pulled out from the water and given emergency first aid on the dive boat and taken to hospital where his leg was saved
Dan’s harrowing encounter with the bloodthirsty sea creature is just one example in a series of vicious shark attacks over the years
The victim suffered life-changing injuries losing both of her hands, with one reportedly amputated at the wrist and the other part-way up her forearm, but her wounded leg is said to have been saved.
She was later flown back to Canada by air ambulance for further surgery and recovery.
Police and environmental officials confirmed the attack which occurred in the waters off Thompson’s Cove Beach in central Providenciales at around 10.30 am on Friday, February 7.
Shark bites in the waters off the Turks and Caicos islands are relatively rare, with only one unprovoked attack reported last year which was non-fatal, according to Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF).
The habitat around the islands is home to multiple types of sharks, including grey reef sharks, nurse sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks, and hammerhead sharks.
The ISAF said in a statement this week that ‘2024 was an exceptionally calm year for shark bites.
Last year, there were 69 reported unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide, above the five-year average. Fourteen were confirmed to have been fatal.
The U.S. recorded the most, with 36 cases.
Globally, swimmers and waders make up 43 per cent of victims, while paddle boarders and other boarders made up 35 per cent of cases in 2022.
It comes after a Canadian tourist had her hands bitten off by a shark while holidaying in Turks and Caicos last week. Shocking pictures show people who appear to be the woman’s family helping to stem the blood flow as she lies injured on the beach
Unconfirmed reports online have suggested it was a bull shark which attacked the woman (file photo)
Elsewhere in the Caribbean last week two American tourists were left injured after being mauled in a reported shark attack.
Both women were swimming off Bimi Bay in the Bahamas when they were attacked, with one said to have suffered severe injuries.
The two travelers had to be airlifted to the nearby island of New Providence to receive advanced medical care.
The Bahamas has recorded dozens of attacks over the years.
If a person encounters a shark when in the water, experts recommend remaining still still and not to swim away.
If the shark does attack, experts recommend punching the shark with all their might in the nose, due to their sensitivity. In most cases, experts says, that will drive the shark away.
They also advise that if a shark is circling around someone in the water and does not seem to be of immediate threat, they key is to remain still and vigilant until it swims away.
