Mick Fanning shark attack video: Watch moment surfer fights for his life on live TV

'I just saw fins. I was waiting for the teeth'

This is the terrifying moment when a professional surfer had a brush with death when he was attacked by a shark on live TV.

Mike Fanning was competing in the final of the J-Bay Open, a major surfing competition Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, when a shark approached him and knocked him off his surfboard.

He said he was able to “get a punch into its back” and startle it so he could escape.

He told Fox Sports Australia: "I was just sitting there and I felt something just get stuck in my leg rope, and I was kicking trying to get it away. I just saw fins. I was waiting for the teeth."

"A big sigh of relief seeing Fanning in one piece," a commentator is heard saying, on the video of the event posted on the World Surf League website.

Osborne said she believes Fanning's brother Sean, who died in a car accident 17 years ago, was watching over his sibling.

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