Hampshire mum rescues six foot stricken shark from Lepe Beach

Alisha Openshaw, 38, a hair stylist from Dibden Purlieu jumped into the water to rescue the 6ft shark stranded on the beach.

The 38-year-old was out on a walk with her two children and mother on Friday when she found the grey fish.

Alisha said: “I was heading to the beach for a walk, my mum was already there so I got took the kids for a nice walk.

“There were a couple of people down there and they saw the shark splashing.

"He was splashing around the water around the start, and I got worried that nobody was going to help him.”

Shark stricken at Lepe beach (Image: Alisha Openshaw)

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At first, she wasn’t sure what it was however as soon as she stepped into the water, all doubts went away.

She said: “At first I wasn’t sure what it could be but once I got there I could definitely see it was a shark.

"It must have been there for a good two hours and I just can’t believe nobody tried to help him.

“I don’t want any animal to suffer, I can’t even kill a fly myself and so I just wanted to save him.”

Alisha then pulled the animal from its tail into deeper waters to try make sure it was safe and could swim.

The shark then swam away in the direction of the Isle of Wight.

She said: “It was quite big, you kind of just think about it later, only afterwards do you think, Oh I actually rescued a shark.

"We must have been in the water for about an hour.”

To finish off the night, the mum and her six-year-old son Mason and 12-year-old Amelia, went to a pub for a meal.

She said: “We were quite cold afterwards so we went to the pub to have a pint and got my kids some chips."

The Daily Echo believes the shark has since died.