Was there a shark swimming in a Florida street because of Hurricane Ian?

A viral video of a shark swimming in a Florida street as a result of Hurricane Ian made waves on the internet - but is very likely fake.

Brad Habuda, behind the Twitter account @bradhabuda, shared a clip of what appeared to be a shark in the flood waters after Hurricane Ian struck Florida on Wednesday (28 September).

"Somehow a shark ended up in a Fort Myers neighborhood during Hurricane Ian," his post's caption read.

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The video has caused a stir online because, for years, a picture of a shark swimming on a highway would always go viral after hurricanes, only to be repeatedly debunked as false.

Habuda's upload of the video has garnered more than 3,900 likes and 10.7 million views. It was also picked up @US_Stormwatch, where it received over 78,900 views.

However, someone else happened to share the exact same video at 10.12am, which was well before the storm surge of Hurricane Ian flooded the Sunshine State.

"Don't think this is real. According to the index on the video, it was created in June 2010," said Mercyhurst University assistant professor Leslie Guelche. "Someone else posted it at 10 AM as in Fort Myers, but the storm surge wasn't like that at 10AM."

Another person with the same sentiments added: "Someone commented on this earlier, a retweet I think, that this video is old and taken in 2010. The water was sucked back, so this couldn't have [happened]6 hours ago, I believe. There [are] videos on here and [on] TikTok from 6 hours ago of the water being pulled into gulf."

Other people made jokes about the situation.

"I heard one got into the hospital...but it was a nurse shark, so they let it stay," a third quipped, while someone else added: "I heard one crashed a local wine club meeting... but it was a great white, so they were chill with it."

Hurricane Ian rocked into Southwest Florida cities, making landfall on Wednesday, bringing with it heavy rains, flooding, and winds.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the Category 4 storms bring maximum winds of 150 miles per hour and catastrophic storm surges of 12 to 18 feet,

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