Terrifying moment shark brushed past boy, 11, on Brit beach 'I'm lucky to be alive'

October 2024 · 3 minute read

The waters surrounding the UK's coastline are far from being classed as 'shark infested'.

According to several sources, as of August 3, there have been 56 shark attacks across the entire world this year – and only a few of those have been in British waters.

One of which happened earlier this month when a man was bitten in his leg and survived just off the Cornish coast.

READ MORE: Fisherman's record-breaking 7ft sea beast weighing 28st is largest ever caught by a Brit

And as rare as that was, almost a year to the day of that incident, a boy's dad claimed that his son was "lucky to be alive" after a shark brushed his leg while he was swimming in the Bournemouth sea.

Alan Hayward, 48, was watching his two children, 11-year-old Henry and eight-year-old Mollie, swimming on Boscombe Beach in August 2021.

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Before long, Henry told Alan that he could feel something brushing against his leg - later photos led him to conclude this was the shark's fin.

At the time, he jokingly shouted to his children to run for their lives, but they did as they were told.

But on that same day and on the same beach, Boscombe Beach was evacuated following reports of a shark sighting in the sea.

An eyewitness recorded what they thought was the shark just metres away from the beach in Bournemouth at around 1.30pm – although this was never confirmed.

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On learning about the sighting, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) warned swimmers on the busy beach to get out of the sea immediately.

They put red flags up and closed the beach for over an hour.

Two lifeguards on jet-skis patrolled the water to look for the rumoured shark but didn't find anything.

Taking stock of the incident at the time, Alan said that his son was “lucky”.

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He explained: “He was extremely lucky, to be honest, I think he's lucky to be alive.”

There have been no more shark attacks or sightings in Bournemouth since then, and the shark allegedly sniffing around the young boy was never found – so the breed was never identified.

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