PHOTOS: Surfer's dramatic close call with great white shark

A month after Frits De Bruyn witnessed a dramatic encounter with a shark, the photos he captured of the event have gone viral.

DeBruyn described the Sept. 21 scene in Esperance, Australia when a great white shark believed to have been 10 feet long was spotted in the water dangerously close to a surfer.

"There were heaps of surfers in the water, but people were yelling and beeping their horns and this surfer chose to stay in the water," he said. "It was a bit surreal."

The photos didn't go viral until De Bruyn sent them to a photographer he had met that day on the beach. The surfer in the pictures then saw the photos. He told the Esperance Express that it wasn't until then that he realized how big and close the shark was.

Less than two weeks later, a surfer near where the photos were taken became a shark attack victim, losing his hand and part of his other arm.

Photos used with permission.