Western Australian spearfisherman Keiron Benson hugged a shark to stop it attacking after shooting it through the eye at Five Fingers Reef in Coral Bay

A spearfisher narrowly escaped being bludgeoned to death by a vicious shark, squeezing it for its life after stabbing it in the eye with the spear when it suddenly attacked.

Albany native Keiron Benson and his family had spent several days at Five Fingers Reef on Western Australia’s north coast during the school holidays earlier this month.

But what had been a fun outing of snorkeling, fishing and swimming took a dramatic turn when Mr. Benson decided to go fishing on her last day.

The father said he wanted to celebrate the end of the trip by catching a fish to cook for dinner.

At around 3 p.m. he grabbed his harpoon and the family took their dinghy about 200 m offshore.

Mr Benson dove alone while his partner, daughter and stepson waited in the boat.

Keiron Benson (above) survived a shark attack at Five Fingers Reef in Western Australia earlier this month

Mr Benson had spent several days swimming, snorkeling and fishing at Five Fingers Reef (above) with his partner, daughter and stepson

“I was about to go back when I saw a large figure in the water,” he said ABC.

The figure turned out to be a large shark, which Mr. Benson believes was either a tiger or bull shark.

“It started circling me every time it got closer…it just got bigger and bigger and I realized it wasn’t a reef shark like we had seen before,” he said.

By this point, Mr. Benson was well away from his family’s boat, so he did his best to wave them over to help him while still trying to remain calm.

When he looked back into the water, the shark was almost at the end of its speargun.

At that moment, Mr. Benson noticed that the shark immediately became more aggressive and approached.

“It was right at the end of the gun.” “I just thought ‘shoot,’ and I did, and that’s when it must have decided to attack me,” he said.

A shark (example above) tried to attack Mr. Benson while spearfishing. He knocked him unconscious by shooting his spear through his eye

Mr. Benson (above) survived the remainder of the attack by holding on to the shark’s tail as it attempted to bite him

His weapon managed to hit the shark’s eye socket, knocking him unconscious, but the momentum he had built to attack resulted in him hitting Mr. Benson in the side.

With his family still just yards away, the father knew he had moments to save his life.

“The tail was hanging under my shoulder.” [and it] gave me the idea to persevere. “I grabbed the tail and just hugged it,” he said.

Just a few seconds later, the shark regained consciousness and began an attack attempt.

“It started rotating backwards … and snapped at me … we started rotating underwater several times in a row,” Mr. Benson said.

The pair continued fighting when the dinghy pulled up alongside them.

For several terrifying moments, Mr. Benson and the shark thrashed about in the water while his family looked on.

Only when the shark suddenly dived did the father see a chance to escape and jumped into the boat.

“I just flew into the boat, don’t remember touching the sides just jumped in,” he said.

Mr Benson (pictured with his partner Hollie) managed to climb aboard his family’s boat and escape the attack without serious injuries

Miraculously, he managed to escape the encounter with only bruises.

Fishermen use DNA from Mr. Benson’s speargun to determine what species of shark was responsible for the attack.

It is believed that during an unusually quiet time of year, the shark came closer to shore to find fish.