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| Benidorm beach was closed amid fears of a shark attack |
AUTHORITIES closed the beach in British holiday hotspot Benidorm after a mystery fish sparked a SHARK ALERT by biting a 10-year-old boy yesterday morning.
Holidaymakers at the famous Costa Blanca resort were ordered out of the water for more than half an hour while police searched for the animal.
Local council sources said they thought it might have been a barracuda, a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome snake-like appearance. A photograph of the boy’s injury has been sent to a marine institute in Valencia so experts there can try to determine what type of fish it was. The hurt youngster was treated at a first aid centre on the beach, one of Benidorm’s two famous stretches of sand, and did not need to go to hospital. A 30-year-old woman had to go to a local health centre after being bitten in the leg off the same beach last August. The attack was attributed to a tiger shark. In May a monster fish thought to be a shark was spotted off Palmanova, Majorca. Shark attacks in the Mediterranean, where the most common danger to bathers are jellyfish, are almost unheard of. A Spanish windsurfer was bitten in the leg in 1986 and seriously injured by what is thought to have been a Great White. He later had to have a leg amputated. In 1993 a man lost several toes on one foot in a second attack by a two-metre long slender shark that was never properly identified. A Great White Shark was washed up injured at the Catalan resort of Tossa de Mar in 1992 and later died. Authorities at the time were accused of covering up the incident through fear of upsetting the tourist trade. Lorenzo Martinez, Benidorm’s Head of Public Security and Beaches, said of yesterday’s incident: “The youngster went up to the fish to try to touch it and it turned round and bit him near the waist. “He didn’t need hospital treatment and was seen to at a first aid post at the beach. “He described the fish as being a grey and green colour and measuring half a metre long.”
The unnamed youngster was bitten after spotting the near two-foot long fish while he was swimming with googles on and trying to touch it.
Its teeth left a large circular mark just above his waist.
The incident happened around 11am off Benidorm’s Poniente Beach, near to the resort’s palm tree-filled Elche Park.
The red flag was raised while police launched a hunt for the “greyish-green” fish.
It immediately sparked rumours the beach had been closed because a shark was on the loose.
A local news website reported on its Twitter feed: “The emergency services have evacuated Benidorm beach because of a shark.”
The beach was reopened around midday after no sign of the fish.
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| It is believed the fish could have been a barracuda |
The emergency services have evacuated Benidorm beach because of a shark
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