Video: 'Biggest ever' shark caught in UK waters - from a dinghy

Two fishermen reeled in one of the biggest sharks ever to be caught in British waters - and got dragged four miles out to sea on their 17ft dinghy in the process.

Graeme Pullen and Wayne Comben were just south of the Isle of Wight when the giant 14ft, 550lb thresher shark took their bait.

But it was the start of a two-hour battle, which saw them dragged four miles out into the English Channel, reports TNT Magazine.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr Pullen, 61, said: "It was too dangerous to anchor the boat otherwise it could have capsized. The shark towed us about four miles to the south east and into the shipping lanes."

To officially claim the record for the biggest shark catch in Britain, the pair would have to have killed it and weighed it on land.

But, Mr Pullen added: "There was no way we were going to kill such a superb specimen just to have a name on a piece of paper.

"We reckon it weighed about 550lbs, far in excess of the current British record."

Thresher sharks are a rare sight in the UK, and prefer the warmer waters of the mid-Atlantic.

However, at the end of August, a 13ft thresher shark was photographed leaping out of the water off the Welsh coast in what was described as a very rare sighting.

The Sea Trust managed to capture the moment during a survey in the Bristol Channel, reports the BBC.

The "very large" shark was spotted with a large pod of common dolphins.

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