A tourist described how he jabbed a tiger shark in the eyes to fend off an attack after watching a fellow snorkeler being mauled to death.

Peppino Fappani, a 69-year-old retired dentist from Italy, had been swimming close to the shoreline of a five-star resort in Egypt on Dec 29 when he was attacked while coming to the aid of another swimmer.

Speaking to The Telegraph on Sunday, Peppino Fappani said: “I was able to stick my middle finger hard in his left eye three times, causing him pain. But he kept coming back.”

“The fourth time he attacked, the guys from the diving centre had arrived with a rubber dinghy and were trying to pull me back into the boat, and he grabbed onto my right leg and wouldn’t let me be pulled up. That shark wanted to kill me.”