The beach is supposed to be fun and relaxing but it turned out to be a near-death experience for a man. The swimmer wading in the waters off the coast in Florida had a close encounter with a hammerhead shark on Panhandle beach recently.  Fortunately, the shark lost interest in the man but not after appearing to charge towards him. 

Katie Van Bogart shared a video of the incident on her TikTok page, where she mentioned that it was filmed on Friday morning at Panama City Beach. The video has gone viral since it was posted online and has been viewed over 6 million times. 

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In the video, a man can be seen wading in the water as the shark swims nearby. Initially, it was unclear if the man was aware of the shark, although nobody else was standing near him. Suddenly, the shark seems to charge directly towards the man, then turns at the last second and swims away after coming within just a few feet of the man. 

People are heard in the background reacting to the close encounter as the shark made her charge. They started yelling “shark” over and over again. While another person yells for the man to get out of the water. 

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According to a commentator on TikTok, the shark was actually chasing a fish and only appeared to be charging towards the man. While, another commentator said that if that was the case, the best thing to do was to just stand still, as splashing around could confuse the shark and cause it to attack.