Brit couple’s miracle scuba escape after tropical storm left them ‘abandoned in shark-infested waters for SEVEN hours’

A BRITISH couple on their dream scuba holiday have told of the moment they thought they had been left for dead after being abandoned in shark-infested waters for seven hours.

Julie Byrne and husband Jeff, both 52, were diving off the coast of Mauritius when they surfaced, realising their dive group had been left behind by the tour boat.

 The couple, with three other divers, were then pulled by a strong current that dragged them 12 miles from land into open water, the home of hammerhead and bull sharks.

Julie said she had been left traumatised after the harrowing experience.

She said: “We thought we were done for. That this was it. We’d perish in the water and our bodies would never be found.

“We saw helicopters flying overhead. We yelled and screamed but they couldn’t see us.

“When you’re in waters where you know sharks are common, your mind plays tricks.

“Each time a fish or leaf of seaweed brushed my ankle my heart would stop.

“We were constantly on the lookout for fins, but the waves were so high and the water so choppy that we couldn’t see a thing.”

The couple from Carlisle managed to link arms with the three other divers who had been left abandoned, with the group treading water for seven hours.

They were only saved when a passing boat spotted Jeff’s surface marker buoy, a bright marker that is used by divers to attract attention.

But the group were left with severe sunburn as well as struggling with dehydration and swollen tongues due to the salt water.

Julie, a mum of two, now also suffers PTSD.

The couple had travelled to the area in the hope of seeing coral, parrot fish, lobsters and barracudas.

Booking with the dive company DiveSail Travel through their hotel, the couple set out for a dive.

But they had no idea that earlier that morning, a boat had capsized in rough seas not far from the dive site, killing a baby and a child.

The conditions also plagued the dive trip, with the dive leader signalling for the group to surface due to choppy waters and low visibility just half an hour into their second dive.

But when the divers surfaced, they realised they had been left abandoned in the water.

Julie said: “Panic immediately set in, and some of the younger members of the group freaked out.

“The dive leader told everyone to remain calm and started blowing his whistle saying the boat would hear them and come back.

“But we quickly realised no one could hear us and the boat wasn’t coming back to get us.”