Heart-stopping moment terrified diver fights off great white shark with a spear before scrambling back into his boat

A FISHERMAN had a frighteningly close call with a great white shark whilst diving off the coast of South Africa. Johan Potgieter had to fight the aggressive giant predator off with his spear gun and scarcely managed to escape. Johan Potgieter and others were diving 19m under water when the giant creature appeared In a shockingly narrow escape, the divers managed to get out of the water Potgieter and fellow scuba divers were spearfishing in the murky depths of the sea east of Cape Town, when the terrifying creature attacked. The chilling moments that followed were captured on an underwater camera as Potgieter swims for his life to the safety of a boat. In the clip, he can be heard to scream as the great white closely dodges him and then fiercely returns for him head-on. He bravely manages to fend off the shark with his spear and frantically swim to the surface to call for help. “Oi Boys, look out for the White!!!,” he screams to the others. The shark continues to circle below as he scrambles to climb aboard the boat. Shocked and relieved he tells his team: “Did you see it almost ate me! John, it was right there next to me, so I pushed it away with my gun”. “Boys he nearly ate me,” Potgieter breathlessly adds as the boat rushes to retrieve another diver. Alongside his YouTube video of the attack, Potgieter writes: “The shark was clearly now in attack mode. I had to show some dominance back to him to avoid being bitten.” “That could have quite easily been the end of me.” The disturbing encounter happened in 2015, but the video is currently being shared widely online. This month, another disturbingly close moment was recorded off the coast of Florida when a brave 10-year-old girl managed to defend herself against a shark. Jasmine Carney had part of her foot ripped off in the horror attack before she kicked it and got away. “I fought a shark and won,” she proudly said from her hospital bed just days after. Florida was also the home of another gruesome attack in August, when a shark was filmed mauling a swimmer. The video shows a heroic 16-year-old surfer rushing to help the man after she saw him go under the water. The video shows Potgieter scrambling for safety as he alerts the other divers as the shark circles below The boat then rushes to save the last diver from the water