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This is the horror moment a shark thrashes around in the water near the shoreline as frightened tourists try to reach safety.

Terrifying footage shows the crazed shark sparking panic on a beach on the Caribbean island of San Andres. 

It comes less than a year after an Italian tourist was killed in a shark attack on the same Colombian island, famed for its white-sand beaches.

One man could be seen exiting the water carrying a toddler in his arms as women started screaming next to him on the packed shoreline as the big fish appeared to go on the attack a short distance away.

It later emerged the shark, described locally as a hammerhead shark, had gone for a manta ray.

Terrifying footage shows the crazed shark sparking panic on a beach on the Caribbean island of San Andres

A tourist worker on a jet ski could be seen trying to scare the shark off (left) as it thrashed around in the sea (right)

The drama occurred on Friday on a beach called Spratt Bight, a white sand beach along the main strip on the island which is described as family-friendly and is said to get very crowded.

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A tourist worker on a jet ski could be seen approaching the shark and trying to scare it off as locals and holidaymakers watched on from the shoreline.

Many of the sun-seekers appeared to be beckoning to friends and relatives still in the water to head to dry land as they filmed the events unfolding in front of their eyes on their mobile phones.

The actions of the man on the jet ski were criticised by island sustainable development organisation Coralina which urged calm after the incident and insisted people should take care but had no real reason for concern.

It said: 'They are hammerhead sharks hunting manta rays, they're part of their diet.

'Humans are not part of the diet of sharks and even less so with this type of shark, so what people need to do is be careful.

'Sharks are a fundamental part of trophic networks.'

Marine biology expert Sandra Escobar added: 'The important thing is that these incidents not lead to people attacking sharks and regarding them as enemies.'

The drama occurred on Friday on a beach called Spratt Bight, a white sand beach along the main strip on the island

Onlookers could be seen watching on as the shark made its way towards the shore of the beach

Italian tourist Antonio Roseto Degli Abruzzi, 56, lost a large chunk of his right thigh after being bitten by an eight-foot shark as he swam in a popular-snorkelling area called La Piscinita on San Andres.

Graphic images published by local press and on social media at the time showed him lying on his back after the attack with blood dripping from his wound before he was taken to hospital.

He went into hypovolemic shock and died because of the severe blood loss he suffered.

The shark attack, which happened on March 18 2022, was described at the time as a first in the area.

An island government spokesman said: 'There are diving programmes with professionals in which sharks pass nearby, but nothing has ever happened.'

Diving instructor Mirla Zambrano, 50, added: 'We are all very surprised. It's the fist time a shark has attacked a tourist in San Andres.'

The attack was blamed on a tiger shark, second only to the great white in recorded fatal incidents involving humans although they are still exceedingly rare.

Videos circulating on social media showed the two mostly nocturnal hunters thought to have been involved in the incident swimming in the transparent water where the Italian holidaymaker lost his life.

Marine biologist Rodrigo Lopez said afterwards: 'People are very worried about what's happened and they're not letting people go into the water.

'A witness said the man who was attacked was a good swimmer and had been in the sea for quite a while and when he went further out a second time after coming back towards the shore, began to shout out for help and was surrounded by blood.'

In July last year Colombian free diver Cristian Castano was bitten by a shark off San Andres.

He later posted a photograph from hospital, showing him doing the thumbs up with his hands and forearms bandaged up.

San Andres, around 470 miles north of the Colombian mainland, is part of Colombia but has been historically tied to the UK.

English settlers coming from Barbados and England settled in San Andres and the neighbouring island of Providence in the 17th century.

Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan used it in 1670 as one of the centres of his operations.

After a failed Spanish invasion of the islands in 1635, they were controlled by England until 1787.

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