Swimmers at a popular Spanish beach were told to flee from the water by lifeguards after two sharks were spotted close to the shore.
The pair of predators had made their way to the scenic El Port de la Selva beach on the Costa Brava in the far north-east of Catalonia on Monday, where they alarmed bathers.
People paddling off the beach were the first to notice sinister fins cutting through the surface of the water, and alerted the local lifeguards who raised the red flag.
Once everyone was out, Civil Protection agents had a look around to see if they could track down the creatures, thought to be blue sharks.
However, they were unable to find any trace of them and the swimmers returned to the water.
Until, that is, the sharks were spotted yet again – just half an hour later.
Locals and tourists splashed their way out of the water for a second time, but officials were unsuccessful in tracking them down.
Blue sharks, which are listed as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, have been seen several times off the coast of Spain recently.
On June 21, one was caught on camera off a dock on the island of Arousa, in the Galician province of Pontevedra at the opposite side of the Iberian peninsula from El Port de la Selva.
It was the fourth time a shark had been sighted in the waters around Spain within a week.
The others included a fully grown seven-foot blue shark which caused panic south of popular holiday destination Alicante.
Despite looking a little scary, blue sharks are rarely known to attack humans.
Last weekend, lifeguards saw one in the water at Le Barcarès, a French commune just a short distance north along the coast from El Port de la Selva.
Chief lifeguard David Simian told The Times: ‘Lifeguards took a boat out and saw it was a shark.
‘It was a blue shark that is no threat to humans.’
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