Woman who filmed herself swimming didn’t realise she was ‘inches from death’

You can make a few shocking revelations while rewatching videos you have recorded back - maybe you had your finger over the lens the whole time or you caught something hilarious on camera that's You've Been Framed-worthy.

Or, like this woman, it might dawn on you that you were inches from death and you didn't have a clue about it.

Alicia May was left stunned when she sat down to watch the footage from her early morning swimming session only to find out that she was lucky to make it out of the water alive.

7 News

The mother-of-five had taken her kids for their usual weekend dip at the idyllic Rollingstone Creek near Townsville, Australia, on Saturday (2 March) and had brought her camera to capture a few snaps of them.

She is an avid underwater photographer and loves to shoot clips of her little ones frolicking in the water at the spot they have been visiting each week for more than a decade.

But when Alicia returned home and settled down to relive the day of fun she had caught on film, she spotted something concerning - a dark, elongated shadow which was lurking at the bottom of the creek. Check it out here:

She told ABC: "I was a little bit shocked that I saw something quite big on the video so I played it slowly, paused and zoomed in. You can see the two feet and you can see a tail at the end of it."

Stunned that her family had been unaware they were sharing the water with a terrifying creature, she initially shared the bizarre video with her friends, who laughed off her worries that it could be something dangerous.

But the mum admitted she was so 'scared' about what it might have been that she ended up reporting the sighting to the Department of Environment and Science (DES) later that day.

Alicia's concerning suspicions were then confirmed by wildlife officers - a crocodile had been lurking in the depths of the creek while she and her children were splashing around on the surface.

Experts estimated that the reptile appeared to be at least three metres long.

Alicia described the chillingly close-call which was caught on camera as a 'bit of a reality check' and said that she and her family would never return to the creek to swim again.

According to the DES, this marks the fourth crocodile sighting reported in the Rollingstone area in the last year.

Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation

Senior wildlife officer Tony Frisby confirmed that the croc in question was 'sizeable', explaining that his team had tried to track it down by searching the creek and using a drone, but the search mission was unsuccessful.

The croc was sighted in a zone where rangers remove animals if they display dangerous behaviour.

Frisby added: "Crocodiles are highly mobile, and they travel upstream in our rivers and creeks to source freshwater and feed on animals that come down to the banks to drink.

"You never know what is lurking in waterways, and people really need to make sensible choices when they’re near the water in Croc Country."