A video has been captured of the shark swimming down the River Stour.

The smooth-hound shark was spotted in the river near Manningtree by surprised onlookers.

Emma Tella captured the video of the shark, which is believed to be about a metre long, while she visited the beach with her children on Saturday.

Mrs Tella said she was "fascinated" to see the shark swimming about.

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She added: "It was a surprising appearance and I certainly didn't expect to be going down there on Saturday as normal with my children and seeing a shark so close to the shoreline.

"It is quite a small sand area, so to actually see a shark within a very small area was quite fascinating."

Mrs Tella said that other onlookers didn't appear to be frightened as everyone was more interested and fascinated about the sighting.

She said she captured the video of the smooth-hound shark to show to her husband when she got home.

"It is the first one I have seen," she said.

"There was a couple of us chatting at the beach as the shark was coming in and out all afternoon and there was a man who was a local fisherman who said he had seen one before.

"It was quite exciting and I told my friend to hold onto the children so that I could take a video of it."

A spokesman for Essex Wildlife Trust said: "These sharks enjoy shallow, shingled areas and will be on the lookout for their favourite food source: crustaceans.

"They are adapted with blunt teeth for crushing crab shells.

"Smooth-hounds are widely distributed around the UK and are common along the Essex coast.

"They can be found in relatively shallow waters at times, but it's not so common for the general public to spot them."