Swimmer comes face to face with world’s second-largest shark — it is 20ft long

A horrifying video has captured the moment a swimmer came face-to-face with a 20ft shark after twice ignoring warnings from onlookers.

A group of holidaymakers were out on the water off the Gwynedd coast when, one of them spotted a dark, menacing shape in the water beneath them.

The massive creature, which was estimated to be 20ft long, moved slowly through the water, North Wales Live reports.

READ MORE: Terrified tourists spot huge shark stalking in shallows at beach in Brit holiday hotspot

One of the men was swimming at the time and frantically scrambled back to his wakeboard before being pulled back aboard a boat before it swam past them.

The group watched on, with one shouting: “Look at the size of that!”

The 10 visitors from Lancashire were on a “boys weekend” trip to Abersoch on the Llŷn Peninsula, Gwynedd.

They headed out into Tremadog Bay towards Porth Neigwl (Hell’s Mouth) before anchoring up under the towering cliffs of Trwyn Llech-y-doll.

Jonathan Rigg, director of a Rochdale company offering residential care for young people, was in the boat at the time.

“It was quite amusing, actually,” he said.

“There were loads of jellyfish in the water and we were taking a look when one of the group shouted ‘shark!’. It were a joke, of course: we were just messing around.

“But then moments later, there was another shout of ‘shark!’. This time it came from a walker on the clifftops who was looking down on our group.

“You always get people shouting things from the shore and we didn’t take much notice.

“But then we saw it, right next to us. The lad in the water was s***ing himself and got out as soon as he could.

“The shark swam under the boat and the jet skis. It was almost the same size as the boat, which is 23ft long.”

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What they were seeing, they later realised, was a basking shark.

These are not uncommon in Britain’s coastal waters but they can be hard to spot and are rarely seen quite so close to land.

Clifftops often offer the best vantage points and drones have made them easier to find.

They are the world’s second-largest sharks and reach up to a whopping 28ft as adults, suggesting the Pen Llŷn sighting was a juvenile.