Shark spotted off beach in France scares bathers

A five foot-long blue shark terrified bathers at a beach on France's southwestern Atlantic coast just yards from the shore, it was reported today.

Porbeagles, a type of mackerel shark can be spotted off Arcachon 

By Henry Samuel, Paris

5:02PM BST 21 Jul 2011

Panic-stricken holidaymakers splashed out of the bather's zone at Pereire beach at Arcachon Bay, near Bordeaux, after they spotted the clearly confused predator at the aperitif hour of around 6pm.

When bathers rushed to raise the alarm with life guards, one, Laurent Orban said: "We didn't really believe them. But then people started hurrying out of the water".

"There really was a shark. All greyish blue. He was lurking just five or six metres from the shore, in very little water in the swimming zone," he told the regional newspaper Sud Ouest.

"We quickly hoisted the red flag and got everyone out," he said.

At one stage, the animal was beached on the shore.