A Mt Maunganui beach was quickly evacuated this afternoon after a two-metre shark was spotted in the water.

Safeswim posted red flag warnings on its website at about 3pm, saying swimming is not advised at Tay St Beach, Ōmanu Beach and Papamoa Beach due to sharks.

An eyewitness told the Herald about 50 people jumped out of the water at Tay St “pretty quickly” after the sighting.

“Lifeguards cleared the beach ... [the] swimming flags were taken down.”

Then the shark came back for a second pass of the beach.

“Just cruised back right through where everyone was swimming about 10-20 metres from shore,” the eyewitness said.

Today’s sighting is another in a flurry of shark sightings off New Zealand beaches this summer.

On January 2, swimmers were ordered out of the water at Ōmanu Beach after a two-metre shark was spotted within 50 metres of the shore.

An Ōmanu Beach Surf Life Saving Club lifeguard told the Herald the shark was first spotted about 100m to the right of the beach.

Tay St Beach in Mt Maunganui was quickly evacuated after a two-metre shark was spotted in the water.

He said the club’s roaming patrol staff followed it as it swam through the flags and then told the tower crew, who then sighted it.

“We closed the beach, got everyone out of the water and then waited half an hour before we reopened everything.”

Safeswim issued a safety warning for Whiritoa Beach on December 27, advising people not to swim because of shark sightings.

A spokesman for the Whiritoa Lifeguard Service told the Herald there had been three separate shark sightings close to the shore and the beach had been closed intermittently.

A 2m shark was spotted in the shallows of Ōhope Beach on the same day.

Chris Service was in the water with friends, teaching his kids to surf, when a large shark swam right between them.

“My mates freaked out, his kid practically ran on water to get out,” Service told the Herald.

Not wanting to panic his kids, Service slowly walked to shore with them before telling them about the shark once they were on land.

Service then put his drone up to see if he could find the shark.

“Sure enough, as soon as I got it up, within a minute there it was, cruising right in the shallows with heaps of people,” he said.

“There were 50-odd people in the water ... Everyone got out of the water after that!”

- NZ Herald