Palm Beach closed due to hammerhead sharks

Ten to 15 juvenile hammerhead sharks were spotted swimming off a popular beach spot on Tuesday, some just metres from flagged areas, causing it to be temporarily closed.

Discovery Channel gets up close with a Great Hammerhead. Picture: Discovery Channel

Ten or more hammerhead sharks have been spotted swimming off a popular northern beaches spot on Tuesday.

Lifeguards said a drone operator spotted hammerhead sharks off the coast about 10.20am, before the shark alarm was sounded at 1pm, swimmers were urged to get out of water and the beach wasy closed.

Surf Lifesaving told The Daily Telegraph there were “easily 10, possibly more” small, juvenile hammerhead sharks in the area.

Lifeguards on jet skis patrolled the ocean to ensure no one was injured.

Palm Beach, an hour’s drive north of Sydney’s CBD, reopened later on Tuesday, after being closed for about 90 minutes.

Hammerheads are easily identifiable from drones due to their distinctive shape.

There have been multiple recent sighting of hammerhead sharks at Palm Beach, with a single shark spotted one week ago.

There has never been a recorded human fatality from a hammerhead shark.

Two types of hammerhead sharks are common in NSW waters — the scalloped hammerhead and smooth hammerhead. Both are thought to be non-aggressive.