This is the incredible moment a pensioner swims just meters away from a dangerous ray with a sting that can kill a human. Avid diver Rene Vagnotti was snorkeling in the Red Sea off Hurghada, Egypt, on January 1 when he spotted a leopard ray in the crystal blue waters right in front of him. Awesome footage shows the 70-year-old propelling himself with flippers above a reef as the huge three-meter-long ray glided past just inches away from him.
Leopard rays have two venomous spines at the base of their tails and their stings can be fatal to humans in some cases. “I was very excited to be this close to a leopard ray,” said Vagnotti, from Haute-Savoie, France. “I approached within about a meter of the ray but was careful where I swam next to it. “The ray’s sting is very painful and can be fatal to humans so I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. “It was a very large leopard ray with a one-and-a-half-meter wingspan and a total length of more than three meters.”
