A RARE shark has been spotted lurking in the water only yards from a busy tourist spot.
Visitors were left in awe after spotting the grey and white speckled creature swimming menacingly in a harbour in Plymouth, Devon.
Astonishing pictures have now emerged of what locals have claimed could be an unusual starry smooth-hound shark – a shallow water species rarely spotted in the UK.
Sam Booth and son James got the fright of their life after they saw the beast as they walked along Sutton Harbour in the city's Barbican area.
Amazed mum Sam described the shark as "cool" before snapping some up close photos of it swimming along the surface.
The Sun Online have approached experts at UK Shark Trust to identify the creature.
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But a local fisherman of 16 years said they believed the sea creature to be a smooth-hound shark, Plymouth Live reports.
They said: "I've fished the harbour for 16 years and I've not seen one caught in there before, so it's not common."
A smooth-hound shark can grow up to 5.4 feet – but is not a threat to humans.
They instead chose to munch on shrimps and anchovies.
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Smooth-hound's prefer the warmer waters of the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean – so it is a mystery what one is doing in Plymouth.
But the sighting is not the first shark-related incident to take place this year in Britain.
Back in February a "shark fin" was spotted floating in water near Goring-on-sea, West Sussex.
Local James Venn, 42, spotted the distinctive triangular fin in the water just 30 yards from the shore when it surfaced.
BITESIZE FACTS
Smoothhound shark – Mustelus mustelus
APPEARENCE: Large, slender, short head and snout with large close-set eyes. Usually grey to grey-brown and occasionally has dark spots.
SIZE: Males can grow up to 3.6 ft [110 cm] while females are larger at 5.4 ft [164 cm].
EATS: Crabs, shrimp, squid, anchovies and flatfish.
WHERE: Prefers the warm waters of the Mediterranean and Canaries. Also found in southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Babies: 4-15 pups per litter after a 10-11 month gestation (pregnancy).
HABITAT: Can lurk near the coast in water between 5m and 50m deep, but are often found in intertidal zones as far down as 350m. Smooth-hounds prefer swimming near the bottom.
RARITY: Considered common to abundant.
EDIBLE: Eaten fresh, frozen, dry-salted and smoked, their liver is used for oil, and for fishmeal.
Credit: Shark Research Institute
An experienced shark fisherman said the creature was "obviously a shark" and feared it could be a "small, immature great white" searching for food.
But one expert dismissed the claims, suggesting it was instead some flotsam and jetsam instead.
While in March a decapitated dolphin was discovered on a nearby beach in Hove, East Sussex.
The gruesome discovery fuelled rumours the 'great white' was behind the attack and was lurking along the south coast.
Georgia Tournay-Godfrey who found the shark said: “Its head was missing. It was pretty gruesome.”
But Paul Cox of the Shark Trust was not so sure of the claims that a shark killed the dolphin.
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It comes weeks after Brit Simon Nellist, 35, was attacked by a 15ft great white shark as he trained for a charity ocean swim in the sea off Sydney.
He was just 150m away from the beach at Buchan Point, near Little Bay in Sydney, when the predator struck in the first fatal attack in the area nearly 60 years.
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