A 38-year-old father who was spear-fishing on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, died after being savaged by a shark.

He was just 60 yards from the dive boat which was anchored 50 miles off Cairns when the attack happened.

Experts believe the creature was either a bull shark or a black whaler as it ‘pushed’ its victim up out of the water. The man was the fifth person to be killed by a shark, globally, in the last year.