Birdcage diver goes swimming with a tiger shark - or was someone just spinning a line?

Daredevil Shaun Harrington insists it was just 'fun that turned crazy

The moment the shark swims dangerously close

A daredevil has apparently escaped unhurt from a shark attack off Australia's Gold Coast - but was all it as dangerous as it seemed?

Video footage captures adrenaline junkie Shaun Harrington, 27, jumping into the ocean with a budgie cage over his head, performing one of his latest extreme cage-diving stunts.

After a short while bobbing in the water the cameraman with Shaun pans to an eight-foot tiger shark heading in his direction.

However, eagle-eyed viewers point out there seems to be a thin white rope in the shark's mouth as it approaches Harrington in the water. A cynical view is that it wasn't too surprising that the predator turned up.

The footage then shows Harrington floating in the water and comparatively calm when the shark heads in his direction, with the diver keeping the bird cage between the two of them.

Harrington told local media he feared he was going to die.

"It was heavy - it scared the s*** out of me and I thought I was a goner," he told local reporters. "We were just having fun but it turned crazy.

"I jumped into the water and was swimming with the cage and the next thing I knew, the bloody thing was coming at me. I was flailing around like crazy to get back on the boat before it sunk its teeth into me."

Harrington was in good spirits after the ordeal but said that he won't be jumping back in the water any time soon after trouble from his wife.