A picture posted on Facebook showing a group of Maltese divers posting with what appears to be a dead great white shark has caused uproar.

The photo shows three men in wetsuits and another individual posing with the shark. 

Diver Shaun Farrell told Times of Malta the photo is more than a year old.

"We were in Libya and we found the creature dead as it was washed ashore. We just took photos that I decided to post yesterday to pick on one of my friends.
There is nothing more to say... as we then just put it back dead in the sea."

The post read: "We caught it before it caught us. Whoever thinks we do not do anything, this is what we do.”

The picture was deleted from the social media within hours after it prompted a barrage of protests from many.

Many criticised the divers for posing with what is now considered an endangered species and which cannot be fished or hunted.