Hundreds of terrified tourists flee the water and beach is closed for five hours after swimmers claimed they saw a shark at Spanish resort
Brits said the chaotic scenes were 'like something out of Jaws'
TERRIFIED Brits were forced out of the water at a tourist hotspot after a shark was spotted in the sea.
Holidaymakers raced to get back to the shoreline after the alert was raised yesterday in the Costa del Sol.
Lifeguards on jet skis helped children escape the water and get to safety during the terrifying incident.
Fuengirola beach, one of the most popular of the Costa del Sol with Brit tourists, was closed for five hours while patrol boats searched for the shark.
Stunned witnesses said the chaotic scenes were like something out of blockbuster Jaws.
One said: “It was very scary at first. The lifeguards ran along the shoreline blowing on their whistles and shouting, ‘Out of the water, out of the water’."
Lorry driver John Staples, from London, who was holidaying in the area with his wife Diane, added: “It was like something out of the Jaws film.
“There was a real commotion at the shoreline as everyone tried to get out of the water as fast as they could.
“There were a lot of children on the beach. Many of the smaller ones were crying because they were seeing their parents panicking and just didn’t know what was going on.”
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Three people are believed to have raised the alarm, which officials now believe was false.
Swimmers were still reluctant to get back in the water after the beach re-opened.
In May locals filmed a shark off the same beach, thought to be a blue shark or tintorera which is one of the most common in the Mediterranean.
The same type of shark was blamed for an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche on the Costa Blanca in July.
First aiders described the bite as “large” and said the victim had come out of the sea with blood streaming from the injury.
Last August British tourists were ordered off a beach in Benidorm when a suspected barracuda bit a 10-year-old on the hip.
And in December tourist Cristina Ojeda-Thies was bitten by a shark off the popular winter destination of Gran Canaria.
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