Families flee beach in terror as huge ‘shark’ spotted circling menacingly near the shore
BEACHGOERS fled amid fears of a huge shark off the Kent coast.
A “fin” was spotted moving menacingly through the sea 150ft from shore as children paddled.
Two lads shouted “is that a shark?” before legging it at The Warren beach near Folkestone.
Mum-of-two Emma Horne, 30, was at the beach, less than ten miles from Dover’s famous White Cliffs, with kids Finley, seven, and Alby, five.
Receptionist Emma, who lives locally, recorded footage of the fin last Tuesday at 7pm.
She said: “We couldn’t believe it. The boys were playing in the water so I got them out quickly.
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“There were two young boys who spotted it and were clearly scared — they ran away and one of them shouted, ‘is that a shark?’.
“I warned people and a woman quickly called her dog out of the sea. She was worried.
“Finley and Alby were playing with their nets so we told them to get out then watched it from a distance.
“They were loving it afterwards — they asked if they could catch it!”
Experts said it was probably a basking shark.
They are commonly seen in UK waters in the summer, are relatively harmless to humans and feed mainly off plankton.
Steve Harris, boss of fishing firm Dentex Charters, said: “I first thought it was a basking shark but we do get a lot of tope here, which could be feeding on mackerel shoals inshore.
“It’s definitely a shark, though.”
