Video - Dozens of beachgoers come together to save 14ft great white shark on Cape Cod beach

The rescuers pull the 2,000lb (900kg) creature out to sea

A shark as it is rescued by a crowd of people in Cape Cod (Vimeo/Robyn Schanible)

Dozens of beachgoers banded together in Cape Cod in an attempt to save a 14-ft great white shark, after the powerful predator found itself helpless and suffocating on the sand.

The helpers dug a trench around the creature which extended out to sea on Whitecrest beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Some stood around the shark and doused it with water, while others tied a bright yellow cord around the animal.

Footage of the operation shows the crowd cheering and whooping as dozens of people grab onto the rope and pull the shark, believed to weigh 2,000lbs (900kg), out to sea.

An official is seen shouting at those gathered at the spot in order to disperse the crowd away from the shore.

Robyn Schnaible, who filmed the video, wrote on Vimeo that the rescuers tied one end of the rope around its tail while the other end was attached to a boat.

However, despite their best efforts, the shark died shortly after.

“It was an impressive effort, but unfortunately the shark did not swim off once he was back in the water,” said Ms Schnaible.

The shark became stranded after it got into difficulty while navigating the shallows, Greg Skomal, an shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told the Boston Globe.

Mr Skomal said that shark beachings are “very unusual” and that saving the animal, which was likely dead before it returned to the sea, would have been very difficult.

The results of an autopsy on the shark by Mr Skomal showed that the creature had bled internally under its own weight while it was stranded.

The shark was the second to become beached in Cape Cod this summer. In July, the 7.5ft male was saved using the method employed to help the 14ft shark.

Despite their reputations as dead-eyed predators, sharks kill around four people a year in unprovoked attacks.

To put this into perspective, some 450 Americans dying from bed-related incidents each year, while balloons claim the lives of 5 people.

When other animals are considered, lions and elephants kill 100 people a year on average, tape worms 2,000, dogs 40,000, and mosquitoes a whopping 725,000.