A surfing competition in Australia was called to an abrupt halt after a shark flew out of the water behind contestants.

The Spinner shark, which was only visible momentarily, was spotted by an amateur photographer who happened to take a photograph at the same time.

"The shark actually jumped twice," Steph Bellamy, who took the photograph, told BBC Australia.

"It breached [the surface of the water] once, and it breached again, and that was the shot that I got. It was all in the blink of an eye," she said.

"I could hear people asking 'What was that?'... I didn't realise it was a shark until I zoomed in on the picture."

The shark had "photobombed", the surfers, she added.

Ms Bellamy alerted the competition's announcer to the presence of the shark.

Surfers were called out of the water for ten minutes before the competition resumed.

Spinner sharks can grow to nearly three metres long and can be found in in tropical and warm temperate waters nearly worldwide.