Now, before anybody conjures up scenes from Jaws, this was a small shark and it just bit a swimmer’s hand – it didn’t make off with it; it just bit it.

This occurred yesterday, the 29th, on a beach called Los Arenales in Elche, Valencia. The victim, a 40-year-old man, walked out the water, nursing his injured hand and went to the Protección Civil post to have his injury treated.

He had been lying face up in the water when he felt something bump against him, followed almost immediately by the bite to his hand.

This was at midday and as soon it happened, a red flag was flown and bathers were asked, firmly, to leave the water. From then on a search was carried out but to no avail – the last sighting of a shark in what remained of the day was eight kilometres away near Isla de Tabarca.

However, this incident was quickly followed by anxiety amongst bathers and the emergency line nearly collapsed under the number of shark sightings, real or imagined.

Now, the baddie in this article was a tintorera (blue shark), which, incidentally, is the kind that you’ll find in the supermarket freezers amongst the other fish fillets.

When it’s not lazing in a supermarket freezer in convenient slices, it’s normally 2.5m long and eats squid, herrings, seabirds and mackerel. It’s doesn’t normally nibble humans.

(News: Elche, Valencia, Spain)