The shocking incident happened on the east coast of Spain (Picture: Google / Getty Images)
A man has described the terrifying moment he was attacked by a shark while cooling off in the sea in Spain.
He entered the ocean for a dip as temperatures soared to 31C on Thursday in the Oliva municipality, around 50 miles south of Valencia on the east coast.
But while relaxing within metres of the shoreline in the shallow water, which was no more than knee deep, he saw a ‘shadow’ nearby.
Within seconds, a blue shark lashed out and went for him, sinking its teeth into his foot.
‘I noticed a blow to my left leg and then a bite to my right foot,’ he told local news outlet Las Provincias.
His wounded limb quickly filled the sea water around him red with blood.
Despite the gruesome injury, the man was still unaware which animal had targeted him and he tried to seek help without causing panic among fellow beachgoers.
The man was attacked while relaxing in shallow water at Rabdells Beach in the Oliva municipality, south of Valencia (Picture: Google)
He said: ‘I didn’t have time to get scared. Noticing that blood was coming out of me, I went into the sea so as not to alarm everyone.’
The man, who is said to be a local from Oliva, eventually made his way out of the water and flagged down medics for treatment.
After studying the shape of the bite on his foot, specialists determined that it had come from a blue shark.
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As a result, council bosses immediately ordered all beaches along a three-mile stretch of coastline to be closed while an investigation was carried out.
Radbells Beach, where the attack happened at around 1pm, was shut off to the public, as were the Aigua Blanca and Aigua Mota beaches while the shark remained in nearby waters.
The area lies on the Spanish mainland with popular destination Ibiza 60 miles to the east, and the other Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Menorca a little further along in the Mediterranean Sea.
Police closed all beaches along a three-mile stretch of coastline until the shark had left the nearby waters and it was deemed safe for people to return (Picture: Google)
Medics referred the man to the Oliva Health Centre due to the severity of the injury, where he was treated and given a tetanus jab.
Once the authorities deemed the animal was no longer a threat, the beaches were reopened the following day.
Beaches councillor Salvador Llopis said. ‘There have been raids and surveillance continues and the Oliva coast is free, so it has returned to normal.’
Experts believe the animal attacked the man after becoming ‘confused’ while swimming along the coast, as blue sharks normally operate in the deep ocean, well away from the shoreline.
The man was attacked by a blue shark, according to experts, although they believe it was ‘confused’ as they normally operate miles from the shoreline in deep water (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Given it was swimming in such shallow water, Jaime Penadés, a marine biologist said it ‘must be sick or disoriented since it bothers them a lot to be crawling through the sand’.
‘It is not their natural environment,’ he said.
Mr Penadés told the Majorca Daily Bulletin: ‘These species don’t want anything from us, they are looking for fish, not people.’
It’s the latest in a spate of sightings of blue sharks off the Spanish coast but it’s thought to be the first time a swimmer in the Valencia region has been attacked since 2016.
According to MailOnline, the last attack before that is thought to have been in 1993.
Despite the scary experience, the victim said he plans to return to the same beach and swim in the water again.
He added: ‘The first thing I am going to do when my foot heals is to go back. If you are afraid of things, you are lost.’
Earlier this month, a woman was seriously injured by a shark at a beach in New York.
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The ‘shadow’ of the shark appeared – and moments later it struck.