Five whale sharks were rescued by divers after they were found trapped in fishing nets in ocean waters off Indonesia.

Emil Rued, a Danish sailor who shared video of the heroic rescue, said the creatures were “wrapped tightly in the net with no possibility of escape themselves”.

Underwater footage from Saturday 15 July shows the divers pulling away the nets and gently guiding the whale sharks in the right direction, allowing them to swim away freely.

The whale shark is considered the largest species of fish in existence and is on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a vulnerable species.