‘Sheer panic’: Terrifying I’m A Celeb incident caught on camera

Frightening scenes play out in tonight’s I’m A Celeb as a “non-swimmer” contestant slips below the surface in deep water.

British comedian Stephen K. Amos had a scary moment caught on camera in scenes that will play out on Sunday night’s episode of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

In this exclusive clip, Amos, 56, is seen at the camp’s nearby waterhole with several of his fellow contestants.

Amos plays it safe as they relax in the deeper water under a waterfall, hopping on a pontoon moored in the shallows.

“He told me on day one when we arrived here that he does not swim, and will not swim,” former Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz explains in a piece to camera.

But then, Amos decides to try his luck, launching himself from the pontoon in an attempt to join his campmates in the deeper water.

Into the water he goes.

Amos splashes, struggles – and in frightening scenes - his head then slips under the water.

The other contestants, among them ironwoman and surf life saver Candice Warner, race to his aid.

“I literally panicked. However, I couldn’t shout anything out,” Amos says later of the incident.

So far so good …

EMERGENCY!

“I was panicking inside, and thankfully, they saw in my eyes the sheer panic, and Candice quickly swam over to me, grabbed me by the arm, and took me safely back to the pontoon.

Amos called himself a “non-swimmer” in a 2015 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, saying that despite being a regular visitor to Australia, he never ventures into the ocean on our beaches.

A prompt rescue from none other than a surf lifesaving iron woman.

In other I’m A Celeb updates, news.com.au reporter Lexie Cartwright was recently on location in South Africa for this season, and came away with an interesting story about a “high-profile athlete” on a previous season whose antics sent the production into a tailspin.

A few years ago, just before a dozen celebs were gearing up to enter the South African jungle for I’m A Celeb, crew members were alerted to the fact that one of the high-profile contestants had escaped his strict hotel room lockdown … to go drinking in a local pub.

“He went missing and was found in a local pub at about 11 o’clock at night by our security team,” Alex Mavroidakis, ITV’s Supervising Executive Producer for I’m A Celeb, confessed.

“Our team knew a lot of locals and started ringing all the places that this Australian sportsman may have frequented, and one of the people, he said, ‘Yep, he’s in this pub.’

“So we went and retracted him. I had to have a very stern word with him.”

I’m A Celeb continues 7:30pm tonight on Ten.