A Scottish fisherman has spoken of the moment a 7ft shark clamped its jaws around his foot on board his boat.

Hamish Currie managed to free himself with the help of one of his crew after a porbeagle they had hooked took hold of his steel toe-capped boot. He said the fish also gnawed a hole in the boat.

The skipper had targeted the shark after hearing reports of it attacking seals off Islay, in the Inner Hebrides. He aimed to tag the fish, which is a member of the Great White family, and release it back into the water, and the crew tracked it down on Wednesday.

"A friend got in touch to tell me about the shark because I specialise in that style of fishing. I took a crew of three up there to look for it because it had been attacking seals in the area," Currie said.

"This one was a bad, bad fish. He was nasty and got me by the foot. Luckily I was wearing steel toe-capped boots. I just couldn't shake him off, but eventually one of my crew managed to help me free. It was quite terrifying."

Currie, 53, from Saltcoats, Ayrshire, who has vast experience of catching sharks, said this was his closest call to date. "I was very lucky this time. It has definitely made me a little bit more wary of them," he said.