The shark clamped onto the diver’s leg (Picture: BBC)

Reports of shark attacks have increased recently, with the ocean’s top predators journeying closer to the shores in search of food.

Despite a declining population and many species listed as endangered, divers, surfers, and holidaymakers are seeing more sharks appearing on the coastline.

Unfortunately, this does mean more attacks as the sharp-toothed creatures and humans venture closer together.

In a BBC documentary, Why Sharks Attack, shocking footage showed the moment an Oceanic Whitetip attacked an unsuspecting diver.

The show, which aired on Tuesday, July 18, featured upsetting real-life body cam footage from scuba diver Dan White in the Red Sea.

Thrillseeker Dan was on a dive when he spotted a dark shape out of the corner of his eye – an approaching shark.

Dan realised it was an Oceanic Whitetip (Picture: BBC)

The diver’s leg was ripped open (Picture: BBC)

‘We were only around five metres deep, swimming around, having a little look to see what we could find,’ said Dan.

‘Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a dark shadow, turned to see what it was and it was an Oceanic Whitetip. That’s when I pulled out the GoPro and started filming.’

Oceanic Whitetips are one of the largest shark species and tend to swim in the deep ocean, rather than venturing towards the shore.

The sea floor near the coral reefs in Hurguha drops at a dramatic rate, meaning the sharks can be in deep water but still close to humans.

Dan and his daredevil group went searching for sharks to dive with and found a ‘placcid’ whitetip.

‘The shark was pretty placcid, chilled, and then the shark’s behaviour completely flipped on itself,’ continued the diver.

The shark got inquisitive about the divers (Picture: BBC)

Usually sharks will swim away after being detered (Picture: BBC)

It then became more inquisitive and approached the divers, following one around and trying to bite his flippers.

The male diver managed to kick the shark and deter it but the shark then began to round on another member of the group.

Dan said: ‘[It] took it’s interest into another diver, bit onto the diver’s leg, latched on, thrashed around and ended up going end over end, almost like a cartwheel.

‘It was crazy. It wouldn’t let go for what felt like forever and ended up tearing his calf muscle completely off his leg.’

The footage shows a massive plume of blood coming from the diver’s leg as a screams erupted from another diver.

It caught the diver’s leg and swung round (Picture: BBC)

Luckily the diver’s leg was saved (Picture: BBC)

They fled the water and the victim was rushed to hospital, luckily his leg was able to be saved.

While the footage is disturbing, viewers were quick to note that the attacks happened when humans were invading the shark’s space.

The experts suggested a lack of food source due to overfishing could have driven the sharks to desperately grab whatever is on offer, even thoguh humans are not the usual target.

They revealed that almost three quaters of shark species are now endangered, includng the Oceanic Whitetip.

A spate of attacks lead to the death of a captured tiger shark, which was later revealed to have been pregnant, upsetting viewers.

‘I think the real issue that needs to be talked about is sharks only attack maybe 100 people or so annually and in return, humans butcher MILLIONS of them. Who are the real monsters here?’ tweeted one viewer.

Another wrote: ‘Utterly heartbreaking to think #sharks species might be extinct through overfishing it’s a f disgrace leave these majestic creatures alone stop intruding their space.’

‘I’m really angry on behalf of the sharks now. Anyone else?’ said someone else.

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The footage is terrifying.