WATCH: Massive Shark Appears Among Swimmers In Shallow Water On Alabama Coast

A group of unsuspecting swimmers on an Alabama beach got quite a surprise Friday when an enormous shark turned up in their midst. One woman on the beach captured the whole scene in a video in which swimmers could be seen yelling “shark!” and running out of the water.

“HOLY COW!!!!!” Kayla Rotenberry Blanks, who shot the video, wrote alongside it on Facebook. “PLEASE WATCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS!!! I am shaking this just happened!!!! SHARK!!!!!! GULF SHORES! Yes I took this video, yes it was right in front of me and yes he came within inches of someone!”

Read: Shark Attacks Mother Of 3, Bites Off Arm While Snorkeling In Bahamas

The incident took place Friday afternoon on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Banks said the shark was chasing some type of fish into the shallow area where people were swimming.

“We think it was a small tarpon or schooling bait fish,” Blanks told WKRG. “But there was two other sharks behind that one I couldn’t get on video.”

There were no lifeguards on the beach at the time, but a group of vacationing firemen and paramedics came to the rescue after they spotted the shark. She noted on Facebook that it could have been a “very different scenario” if the volunteer firefighters hadn’t helped to get people’s attention.

“One actually pulled a little girl out of the water because she actually didn’t speak any English and they didn’t understand when everyone was yelling shark,” Blanks told Birmingham’s local Patch news.

Blanks said she couldn’t confidently say what kind of shark it was. Coastal resources manager Phillip West, however, told Patch if he “had to put money on it” he would bet it was a 10 to 12-foot hammerhead shark chasing a tarpon.

“That’s the one I’m going with,” he said, noting that swimmers should stay out of the water during low-light hours or at times when there are a lot of bait fish in the area and should avoid wearing shiny jewelry or objects that sharks could mistake for glinting fish scales.

The head spokesperson for the City of Gulf Shores said the sighting was very unusual for the area.

“That’s odd,” Grant Brown told Patch. “I’ve never really seen one flopping around so close to shore.”

Brown said the shark sighting would be treated as an isolated incident and that the beach was not planning to put up any warning signs or alerts.

Read: Video Shows Shark Attacking Man Fishing In Florida Keys

“People have to be diligent,” he said. “Sharks live in the Gulf of Mexico and they occasionally tend to come close to shore.”

According to Shark Attack Data, a database ranking incidents throughout the United States, there have been 11 unprovoked shark attacks in Alabama since 1900. Over the past 12 years, five people have been attacked by sharks in the state, though none have been fatal.