A young Hungarian tourist who posted a clip on You Tube purporting to show a close encounter with a Great White Shark in Paradise Bay yesterday apologised, admitting the footage was a fake.

The person who posted the clip admitted the film had been doctored and apologised

The clip, posted on the popular video-sharing site on Tuesday, features a pair of tourists out in the bay on a rented kayak. At one point, the camera is submerged for a few moments and a large shark immediately comes into view, apparently swimming by the side of the kayak. The camera is pulled out of the water and the clip stops there.

But the clip was immediately dismissed as a fake by Alex ‘Sharkman’ Buttigieg, who pointed out to timesofmalta.com yesterday morning that the shark in view was actually filmed in South Africa.

The original clip, titled 9 Foot Great White Shark Circles Kayak, was posted on You Tube in August 2010, and shows an extended sequence of the same shark footage which appears on the video purporting to be shot at Paradise Bay.

By yesterday evening, the person who posted the clip, under the pseudonym Casoidon admitted the film had been doctored and apologised.

“I would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this video. Please accept my (apology). It was fool from myself. Sorry for all,” he wrote in a comment beneath the clip.

The footage itself was altered to include a warning that the clip is a fake.

The Mediterranean is host to a number of shark species but sightings of this kind so close to shore are extremely rare.

The last claim of such a sighting close to shore came in August of 2010, when a 35-year-old windsurfer claimed a three-metre-long shark had circled his surfboard for 45 minutes off St Elmo and bit off a piece of his sail, which was in the water.

Shark experts had also expressed scepticism in relation to this incident, particularly because of the length of time the shark reportedly spent near the man. When they do attack, sharks usually bite and leave.