Heart-stopping moment shark ‘chases’ teens at Bulli caught on video

Two teenage siblings have been left shaken after a terrifying encounter with a shark near Wollongong over the weekend. Watch the heart-stopping footage.

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An Illawarra teenager has captured the terrifying moment a shark crept up on her and her brother while they were spearfishing north of Wollongong over the weekend.

Footage of Taia and Baxter Hanley’s encounter with the shark has been watched thousands of times online, showing the heart-stopping moment a shark swam up behind them, appearing to chase them for a few seconds.

Taia, 16, can be heard screaming as she and her brother, 13, ferociously paddled away from the shark, believed to be a bronze whaler, after it seemed to appear out of nowhere while they were spearfishing off Bulli Point.

Baxter Hanley pointed his speargun at the shark to keep it away from he and his sister. Picture: Taia Hanley.

In an effort to protect he and his sister, Baxter pointed his speargun at the shark, while Taia started filming and screaming for help.

In a Facebook post, the teens’ mother Cindy said her children were shaken after the incident, which would be most people’s worst nightmare.

“It rattled them pretty badly as you can imagine,” she wrote. “But I’m sure they will be back out there soon”.

The Hanley childrens’ encounter was the third shark sighting in the area within the space of just 12 hours, with swimmers forced out of the water at both Thirroul and Austinmer the following morning.

At 7am on Monday, a shark was spotted at Austinmer, and was seen to be chasing a school of fish just off the beach.

Just a couple of hours later a 2.5 metre bull shark was spotted nearby at McAuleys Beach in Thirroul. Reports suggest it was just 20 metres from shore and chasing fish in murky waters.

While bronze whaler sharks aren’t considered aggressive and was likely just curious about the teens, it was nothing short of a nightmare for the Hanley children.

“[Baxter] did so well to hold it together and keep the spear pointed at (the shark) before walking on water,” the children’s father Scott wrote on Facebook.

“It’s rattled Taia as you can hear from the screams”.

Will Schroeter was bitten by a shark at Windang beach in January.

Their encounter follows a shark attack at Windang beach in January, when 59-year-old Will Schroeter was bitten on the foot while surfing.

Mr Schroeter was waiting for a wave when the shark attacked him in murky waters. After the attack, he paddled himself to shore, where he was assisted by an off-duty lifeguard and other people on the beach, who applied a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.