A man was left stunned after finding a shark in his back garden when it fell from the sky while he made a cup of tea.

James Hills, 26, was in the kitchen of his family home in Tankerton when dad Colin, 59, alerted him to the two-foot long small-spotted catshark on Thursday lunchtime.

The pair believe the shark was picked up by an over-ambitious seagull that dropped it mid-flight.

James, an engineer and part-time rescue boat volunteer for Tankerton Bay Sailing Club, said: "I was just making a cup of tea, when my dad walked into the kitchen and said 'what's the name of the small native shark that lives in the UK?'

"So I said it's a dogfish, which is also confusingly also known as a catshark, and asked why he wanted to know.

"And he said 'there's one in the back garden'.

"I couldn't believe it. There it was, lying on the lawn."

"It was at least two feet long, but had been dead for a couple of days.

"I prodded it for a bit, and then carried on with my day.

"Since then it's all been a bit nuts.

"I think everyone's especially interested because of the Sharknado films. I was just making a cup of tea, and a shark fell into the garden.

"I think it must have been picked up by an over-ambitious herring gull or cormorant or something who has dropped it."

The small-spotted catshark is a small, shallow-water shark with a slender body, a blunt head and sandpaper-like skin.

Its two dorsal fins are located at the tail end of the body and crustaceans, molluscs and fish are their main prey.

The species is common across the globe, residing off the coasts of Norway, the British Isles, and Senegal and in the Mediterranean.