Breath-taking images show the moment a team of divers came across an extremely rare "earthquake fish" off the coast of Taiwan.

Comparing it to the divers, the beast appears to be roughly 4m in length – making it twice the size of Peter Crouch.

Oarfish earned the nickname "earthquake fish" as they are said to rise up from extremely deep waters before or after a quake.

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They typically live between 200m and 1,000m below sea level, meaning it is very rare for divers to come across one.

Diving instructor Wang Cheng-ru captured footage of this oarfish near New Taipei's Ruifang District. He told Newsweek: "Many amazing animals can be found off Taiwan's northeast coast, and the views underwater are very beautiful, but it was my first encounter with a giant oarfish."

Sadly, it appeared to be wounded with a large hole in the centre of its body. Wang said it was likely the result of an attack from a cookiecutter shark, also known as a cigar shark.

He added that the wound is probably why it had risen into shallow waters. Experts reckon oarfish rising to the surface like this when dying are perhaps the source of several ancient sea serpent tales.

Oarfish are thought to grow up to around 8m long, although there have been unconfirmed reports of some reaching 15m. They are the longest bony fish on the planet.

A 6m oarfish was discovered off the coast of Chile in July 2022, with remarkable footage of the giant sea creature shared on social media.

Locals feared the catch was an omen of a natural disaster to come, but luckily those fears proved to be unfounded.

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