A beach-goer was left stunned after snapping a photo of what he believes was a pod of killer whales swimming off the coast of County Durham.
Tim Ward captured the snap between 3.30pm and 4pm on Monday (May 18) when he saw "splashes" coming from the sea at Seaham Beach.
And when he took a closer look, he was amazed at what he saw and thinks they were orcas- otherwise known as killer whales.
It comes after reports of a confirmed sighting of a group of killer whales off the Northumberland coast earlier this month which experts believe could be the same group.
Tim said: "While I was taking the snaps, I overheard a man telling his wife they were porpoises- I was happy with that.
"All I could see were splashes really. It wasn't till I got them onto my laptop and cropped right in that I started to doubt what they were.
"I thought they looked a lot like orcas but of course, that's not possible. So I used Google lens on that pic and it came straight up, very quickly with 'Killer Whale' and no other options."
Killer whales are spotted in British waters from time to time but the sighting is extremely rare.
In the North Sea, dolphins and porpoises are regularly spotted and some experts have said that the sighting is more likely to be dolphins.
However, Neil Mearns from the Sunderland Coastguard said that the creatures could be from the same group of confirmed killer whales in Northumberland.
Neil said: "I’m aware that a confirmed sighting of a pod of Killer Whales (Orcas) was made by a lobster fisherman off the Northumberland Coast on May 5, 2020. It is possible these are the same as those seen off Seaham.
"It is quite rare to see this type of marine mammal so far south in the North Sea but not unheard of.
"HM Coastguard would not usually become involved in sightings unless one of these animals became stranded as these fall under the category of Royal Fish."
