A MUM and her daughter made a hasty retreat while paddling along the shoreline at Sandbanks, after a rare encounter with one of the UK's native sharks.

They were walking at the beach in Poole when they stumbled upon the four-foot Starry Smoothhound.

Bournemouth Oceanarium experts, who have seen the photographs, identified the species, which is native to UK waters and can grow up to to 1.3metres long.

Experts say they are usually found in deeper water, so the paddlers were 'lucky' to see one so close to the beach.

Despite it looking to the contrary, the Starry Smoothound is completely harmless.

The mum, who managed to get some photos of the shark, said: "I was there with my daughter and her friend, it was my daughter's 21st birthday.

"We were just walking along the beach paddling. My daughter was not really paddling and I joked 'don't be so silly, get your toes wet'. But she said, 'you don't know what is in there'.

"I said 'don't be so silly, there's nothing in these waters', then ten minutes later that was there.

"I would have said it was at least three or four feet long.

"You can see in the photos that it was right in the shoreline where the waves were breaking."

It was spotted at Sandbanks Beach, Poole, at the end of May.