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Feared 'Deadly Shark' Spotted Off Cornwall

Feared 'Deadly Shark' Spotted Off Cornwall

A species of shark thought to be to blame for hundreds of attacks on humans has been reported off the coast of Cornwall.

One sighting of an oceanic whitetip shark was made by a fisherman who said his wooden boat was rammed as he fished for mackerel.

The harbour master's office in St Ives confirmed that a second person on a separate boat had also reported seeing one of the sharks a mile off shore.

The species is blamed for many attacks on humans and brought terror to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh last year when a 'rogue' whitetip reportedly killed a German woman .

A spokesman for the harbour master in St Ives said they were not "100%" sure if the sharks spotted were oceanic whitetips and stressed that people should not blow the reports "out of all proportion".

The pelagic - or ocean-going - species is usually found far further south in deeper waters away from the coast, with Portugal being the usual northern-most reach of its habitat.