Diver Reveals How Great White Shark ‘Grinned’ at Him During Terrifying 10-Minute Encounter

A diver is counting his blessings after surviving a dangerous encounter with a great white shark off the coast of Western Australia.

Tanveer Dhillon, 39, came face-to-face with the shark while diving off the Ocean Reef in Perth on Sunday, Dec. 21.

He encountered the animal just meters below the ocean’s surface as it suddenly cornered him and rammed him into a sandbank, he told 7News Australia.

“[I was] pushed and shoved into the ground. My first instinct was ‘why is my dive buddy kicking me?’ So I turned around and when I saw that it was not a person, it was a shark — it was sheer panic,” Dhillon told 7News Australia.

“I see a great white grinning straight at me … my heart was in my mouth,” he recalled of the terrifying moment. 

The shark circled Dhillon for an agonizing 10 minutes as the oxygen in his dive tank depleted, before it eventually swam off.

“I did say a prayer, saying, ‘If I get out of this situation, I’m never gonna put myself in this position again,’ because you’re completely helpless,” Dhillon told 7News Australia.

As soon as the shark disappeared, Dhillon raised the alarm to his fellow diving companions and warned them to swim back to safety to their boat, per the outlet.

The 39-year-old said that the shark didn’t attack him because he deliberately didn’t make any sudden moves during the underwater encounter.

“If I would have done the knee-jerk reaction and gone straight for the surface, I feel fairly confident it would have gone for me,” he said.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Dhillon added that the scary encounter hasn’t put him off diving — though he might pause on it for a while. “I do need more time to process,” he said.

Following the incident, he is urging people to respect the waters and the creatures living there.

“This is the shark’s territory and we are just visitors over there and understanding that, we have to be mindful of that,” he added.

The incident took place one day before triathlete Erica Fox, 55, went missing off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 21.

The experienced ocean swimmer, who co-created the ocean swim group the Kelp Krawlers, was swimming with a group of 15 others when she is believed to have been attacked by a shark.

An onlooker told the local authorities that they saw water splashing near Fox when she went missing, CBS San Francisco reported. Another witness said they saw a “large splash,” per SFGATE. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Shark Watch South Australia also revealed in a post on Facebook that Lee Berryman had been bitten by a Great White shark off Kangaroo Island, Australia, on Oct. 7.

Berryman — whose surfboard was also broken in the attack — had initially believed he was attacked by a Bronze Whaler and sustained over 50 stitches and bruising after the shark “chomped” on him.