WHEN TWO Florida swimmers realised they were just metres away from a hammerhead shark they raced back to the safety of the beach as fast as they could.

The video, which re-emerged yesterday on a popular newspaper’s website, was taken by a bystander who several times tried to alert the swimmers to the shark which was only metres away from them.

After they realised the close proximity of the hammerhead, which was hunting for its next meal and appeared to have just eaten a large fish, they weren’t keen to stick around.

Although not advisable to approach any creature in the sea that could be a predator the hammerhead has a reputation as not being a threat to humans and the threat of being attacked by any type of shark is extremely minimal.

The hammerhead shark forms a group of sharks in the family sphyrnidae, named for their distinctive heads which appear flattened and laterally extended into a hammer shape called a cephalofoil.

Do you have a survival story or video you’d like to share on Limitless Pursuits? Email us at info@limitlesspursuits.com