This is the lethal catch of terrifying Portuguese Man o’ War stingers as officials in Spain try to scoop them from the sea.

The bag-like creatures – often mistaken for close relatives of jellyfish – carry stings so powerful they can kill a man.

Many Spanish beaches have been temporarily closed this summer as swarms of the ocean killers head for the coast.

Now experts are scooping up hundreds of the Man o’ War every day to make sure the sea is safe for bathers again.

This footage, recorded on 10th August, shows how workers from San Sebastian city council are netting the creatures from the sea near Donastia beach on northern Spain’s coast.

And it is not just the country’s northern beaches that are affected, with reports of jellyfish on the Mediterranean coast as well.

Europe has seen an invasion of the creatures and their jellyfish cousins across Spain, Italy and France.

The Portuguese Man O’War – or Physalia physalis – is a siphonophore which carries a potent venom in its trailing 30-foot-long tentacles.

It can cause burns and is capable of paralysing and quickly killing fish and other prey and can cause agonising welts on human victims.