Face to face with a great white shark

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In a scene that could have come straight out of Jaws, two scuba divers in Mexico had a heart stopping experience when a 15ft great white shark slammed into their metal shark cage and ripped it open, leaving them stranded as bait.

The whole incident, which took place last year at the Isla de Guadalupe, has emerged on YouTube where it has been watched by over half a million people.

The incredible footage shows the 2 tonne predator feeding on tuna as the two men in wetsuits, who had paid about £2000 for the ‘ultimate shark diving experience’ watched from inside a six-year-old steel shark cage.

According to the diver who posted the video, the attack by the giant ocean predator – known as CC or Cut Caudal among regular divers in the area - was actually an accident that happened after the shark unwittingly blinded itself while feeding on fish.

CC apparently instinctively rolled his eyes back as he took some bait and rammed into the viewing window of the cage, narrowly missing the head of one of the divers.

As the shocked divers tried to swim out of the way, the shark’s entire head, up to its pectoral fins, was jammed into the small window.

Panicked, the man-eater thrashed from side to side to free its snout from the cage but instead removed the front of the cage with its enormous weight.

As one of the divers kept filming the other managed to open the emergency escape hatch and the two were pulled to safety by crew members on board their boat, The Searcher.

The diver who posted the video online under the pseudonym ScubaDubaDive, said the shark - apparently one of four great whites in the vicinity - was not angry or provoked, and was “definitely not attacking us or the cage”.

“It is just that after it hit the tuna in front of the cage its eyes were closed to protect them. It hit the cage blind and then reacted,” said the diver, who was back in the water 15 minutes later.

“Never-the-less it scared the **** out of me!!! “

The divers were in the cage as part of a trip with Great White Shark Adventures, who run regular shark dives on board the same boat to the same area. The trips range from £1920 ($US2850) for a 5-day cage dive trip to £2960 ($US4395) for a luxury 7-day trip.

In a statement attached to the video, the company said they would upgrade their shark cages, which was due to take place by the end of this year.

“The Searcher's cages are 6 years old now and we have learned a great deal since we first built them. We are going to take this opportunity to design and build new state-of-the-art cages that will be safer and stronger. We will unveil the new cages in spring 2008," the statement said.

“When we said, 'You can get face-to-face with the ultimate predator' this is not what we had in mind!”