Steve Irwin's dying moments revealed by cameraman who filmed his death

According to the cameraman, Steve Irwin was stabbed ‘100 times’ by a stingray within seconds.

16:45 11 March 2014

Australian “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, who was famous for his daring stunts with dangerous animals, was filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland in 2006 when he died. Now, it has emerged that his dying moments were captured by the cameraman who was with him at that time.

Cameraman Justin Lyons said that they came across an 8-ft-wide stringray in chest-high water.

Speaking for the first time about Irwin’s death, he said: "I had the camera on, I thought this is going to be a great shot, and all of sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.”

"I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away and I didn't know it had caused any damage. It was only when I panned the camera back that I saw Steve standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something had gone wrong."

He continued: "It's a jagged barb and it went through his chest like a hot knife through butter.”

"He had a two-inch-wide injury over his heart with blood and fluid coming out of it and we had to get him back to the boat as fast as we can.

"I was saying to him things like 'think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on', and he calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying' and that was the last thing he said."

Lyons confirmed that the footage of his death was handed over to the family’s estate and hopes that it will never see the light of day.