Forget Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey - Wales has a new hero! Welsh holidaymaker Paul Marshallsea narrowly escaped injury after lunging at a shark that had swam into shallow Australian waters near where several toddlers were playing. The grandfather of one, 62, jumped into the water and pulled the 2-metre dusky whaler shark by his tail after lifeguards had sounded the alarm.

Speaking to a news-crew for an Australian TV news bulletin, Marshallsea (he marshals the seas, you see), said, "People might say it was a stupid thing to do but when you see a beautiful beast struggling to survive up close and personal you somehow tend to respect it and want to help it." Paul, of Merthyr Tydfil, was enjoying a barbecue with his wife Wendy, 56 and daughter Rachel, 21, when he heard cries of "Help, shark!" He sprinted towards the shallow waters of Bulcock Beach on the Sunshine Coast and was seen grabbing the shark's tale and pulling it back, away from the kids. "We got hold of his tail and pulled with all our might to get the shark back into deep enough water so that the poor thing could survive.While I was pulling the shark by the tail back into deeper water her 2ft-long babies where swimming through my legs. They must have got lost and marooned by the shallow sand banks and got beached," he said.

Between 60-100 shark attacks are reported each year, though fatalities are rare.

Watch Paul Marshallsea Pull Back The Shark Into The Water: