The police were constantly inundated by sightings of large fish “that turn out to be false alarms”, which was why a statement was not issued about the alleged shark attack on Saturday.

“It is not worth alarming people,” a police spokesman said, after a 35-year-old windsurfer claimed a narrow escape from a three-metre large fish which he thought was a shark.

The Armed Forces of Malta are carrying out patrols in the areas where the fish was sighted. According to an army spokesman it was routine for the AFM to patrol an area after any large fish or water mammal was sighted.

No more reports of sightings came in yesterday.

On Monday, David Bonavia, a windsurfer from Valletta claimed to have been attacked by a large fish while surfing. According to Mr Bonavia, the “shark” circled his board for 45 minutes and bit his sail. He was taken to hospital where he was treated for shock and reported the incident to the police, who however issued no statement to warn swimmers.

Meanwhile, the shark attack caused many mixed feelings on timesofmalta.com. While some felt the surfer’s story was “a classic hoax”, others said they were “not surprised” with the sighting and blamed the presence of the large fish on the tuna pens which have been increasing over the past few years.

Alex Buttigieg, known as the Sharkman, also seemed sceptical. He told The Times on Monday his doubts revolved around the length of time the shark spent near the man.

“I can understand that five minutes alone with a big fish would seem like a lifetime but usually sharks attack, bite and leave,” he said, adding that such long shark sightings were unheard of unless a large number of people were at sea, such as in the case of a shipwreck.

Mr Buttigieg, however, was unable to exclude the possibility of the predator being a shark “as it’s not the first time a shark followed a ship outside harbour”.

This did not dissuade bathers from swimming at Exiles in Sliema yesterday. However, some swimmers admitted to feeling less safe in the water.