Steve Irwin's cameraman relived the Crocodile Hunter's tragic final moments
Topics: Animals, Australia, Steve Irwin, Celebrity
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Denise Truscello/WireImage/Getty
Topics: Animals, Australia, Steve Irwin, Celebrity
A cameraman opened up about Steve Irwin's heartbreaking final moments after he was fatally injured in a stingray attack.
Steve Irwin - best known as the Crocodile Hunter - passed away on September 4 2006, at just 44 years old, after being attacked by a stingray while filming in the Great Barrier Reef.
The animal was reportedly six-foot wide and hit Irwin in the chest with its venomous barbs on its tail.
The Australian zookeeper and environmentalist starred in multiple television series which documented his daring adventures in the wilderness, catching on camera his up-close interactions with multiple dangerous animals.
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Cameraman Justin Lyons accompanied Irwin on many of his expeditions, working on the docuseries The Crocodile Hunter for over 10 years when Irwin sadly passed away.
Lyons has since spoken out about Irwin's last moments and if the footage of the conservationist's death may still be out there.
While waiting for tiger sharks to rise to their bait in the Great Barrier Reef, Lyons explained how Irwin grew restless.
"We never wasted a minute. We were always shooting and because we had some spin-off shows, we used every frame of every shot," Lyons recalled.
So, Lyons and Irwin decided to hop onto a separate inflatable boat and go out and scour for tiger sharks around the sandy flats.
They soon spotted a stingray, who Lyons noted the pair had filmed 'dozens of times before in deep and shallow water'.
The cameraman told Daily Mail Australia: "We knew the behaviour. We weren't scared of them, Steve had handled them and filmed with them. We thought this was going to be a joy. [...] We were swimming around him, he'd glide off and settle on the bottom."
However, the stingray was the 'biggest bull ray' Lyons had ever seen. It was six-foot wide with a 'jagged-edge barb' on the end of its tail.
While previous experiences of filming with stingrays usually went smoothly, this situation did not.
Lyons recalled: "[Irwin] swam up right over his tail. Instead of swimming off, [the bull ray] propped himself on the front of its wings and pushed his rear end up and started madly stabbing with his tail towards Steve.
"The water boiled with bubbles, thrashing and whatnot. The entire time I was locked on Steve. I didn't know what was going on, I could see it was trying to stab Steve and he was pushing him away but it was over in about 10-15 seconds."
He continued: "The stingray swam off so I panned to film Steve swimming away. It wasn't until I panned back and the water around him was already filling with blood that I realised."
Irwin suffered two fatal punctures to his lungs. Despite the team's best efforts to perform CPR as they rushed the zoo keeper to shore - recording as they did due to Irwin's 'premise someone had to keep filming regardless of the situation' - the conservationist had already passed away.
The footage of Irwin being stung by the stingray was lost when the team cut off the inflatable boat to race to shore quicker, however it was later retrieved and shown to the team before being given to the police.
It's then believed to have been given to Irwin's widow Terri, Sky News reports
The harrowing footage has never been aired for the public.