“The amount of force that pulled me under, I’ve never felt anything like that,” lifeguard Greg Wilfert said

NEED TO KNOW

• A lifeguard, Greg Wilfert, recalled the terrifying moment he was pulled 6 feet underwater by what he believed to be a great white shark
• “I immediately slipped out of the strap on my can and swam to the surface as fast as I could and then I just beelined it back to the beach,” he said
• Just days before the incident, nearly a dozen young sharks were spotted in the waters off Pine Point Beach in Maine

A 71-year-old lifeguard is reliving the terrifying moment he was pulled 6 feet underwater by a great white shark in Maine. 

On Saturday, Aug. 8, Greg Wilfert told News Center Maine that he was swimming in the ocean with a yellow rescue torpedo when he suddenly felt something pull him toward the ocean floor. 

“I thought I was caught in the prop of a boat, but I soon realized it wasn’t a prop of a boat,” he recalled to the outlet. “So, I slipped out of my harness and got to the surface and swam as fast as I could back to shore.”

After realizing that there weren’t any boats near him, Wilfert told CBS News that he immediately knew a “great white” had gotten a hold of him. 

“The amount of force that pulled me under, I’ve never felt anything like that, never,” he emphasized. “I immediately slipped out of the strap on my can and swam to the surface as fast as I could and then I just beelined it back to the beach.”

According to the outlet, a witness told the Scarborough Police that they saw the rescue torpedo fly around 6 to 8 feet out of the water as the lifeguard frantically swam to shore. 

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“It was frightening; I am not going to deny that,” Wilfert said. “I was just screaming at people to get out of the water, because I didn’t know where that thing was.”

While Wilfert escaped the incident unharmed, the Scarborough Police said that the encounter is “very consistent with other activity we have seen,” per CBS News. 

Just days before the incident, nearly a dozen young sharks were spotted in the waters off Pine Point Beach in Scarborough, according to local outlet WMTW. Officials are warning swimmers to take extra caution when going into the water. 

“There’s no fish that’s going to do that,” Wilfert told the outlet of what he believed to be a shark. “I was hoping that it wasn’t coming back up to check me out.”

Following the incident, Scarborough Beach State Park was closed to swimming for around an hour as lifeguards and public safety officials assessed the situation and monitored the waters. 

The Scarborough Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. 

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