Diver captures massive great white shark lunging for a meal just meters away from him

A fearless diver captured the exact moment he came face-to-face with a great white shark on his smartphone, and the footage - which has since been posted to Facebook - is captivating people all over the world.

Thomas Olsen was up close and personal with the imposing creature as it made a beeline towards him, appearing to maintain eye contact with him as it did so.

Watch the terrifying moment below:

The shark can be seen at the start of the video catching sight of the food it hopes to catch. The impressive footage shows how the mighty predator lunges up to catch his meal - which is drifting on the surface of the water - while exposing its razor-sharp teeth. It then heads back down in Thomas' direction, who is watching safely from an iron cage.

In what makes for gripping viewing, the creature emerges right in front of the iPhone being used to film the encounter, before suddenly changing direction, leaving Thomas behind. The exact location of the alarming encounter is not known.

These fishermen were stunned as a huge great white shark leapt out of the water to steal their catch:

In any case, Thomas decided to share the video to Ocean Planet Soul's Facebook page last week, which spawned an intrigued response from many Facebook users.

Credit: Getty

"Look at the musculature of this most beautiful creature," one user wrote. "White shark power!"

"Holy crickets that is one big shark," commented another, while a different user wrote: "Awesome shot. Well done."

"Oh. My. Magnificent," another enthused viewer added.

"This scared the c**p out of me," one user revealed.

However, not everyone responded positively to the content of the video.

This man spotted a '30-foot' shark swimming near his boat: 

"Beautiful but this is not the way to approach an animal in its habitat," one user said. "For convenience, the man has found this way to shorten the waiting time. I hope that for the same reason, great white shark does not believe that every time it meets a "human" in the water, there is a treat as a reward to repay for the photoshoot!"