A huge shark has attacked a man off the coast of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, on Thursday (29 May) after he was caught on a fisherman's hook.

Footage of the event, filmed by a bystander on a pier, shows the sea turn blood red as the animal snaps its jaws shut on the man's arm.

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The man howled with pain as the beast sunk its teeth in but still walked away in the waist-high waters.

It is not known what his condition is.

He and another man were trying to help a fisherman land the shark, which was around 6ft long.

"Someone caught the shark and as they were pulling it in, it whipped around and bit him on the arm," Catherine Patton, who works at the pier, told CBS.

"There was a lot of blood, but they took him away in an ambulance and I think he's OK," she added.

Further footage and pictures, uploaded to Facebook on Friday, showed people trying to release the shark after it had been pulled to the beach.

A couple of men, other than those who had been in the sea, appear to free the animal and release it back into the water.

"I think you shouldn't take that into your own hands. You need to be careful, especially if there are sharks in the water, which there are this time of year. You don't want to be in there at the same time," tourist Jim Matzko told WWayTV.

Shark bite
The shark was released back into the water Facebook / Bryan Davis