A rare whale shark has been killed just a few hours after being seen near an offshore oilfield in south-west China, according to Chinese media.

The gigantic animal was spotted off the coast of Behai, China’s Guangxi province, on May 5.

Just hours later, the shark was found killed and hung in the city’s harbour, reports the People’s Daily Online.

Stunning: The whale shark was seen last week near an oil platform off the coast of Behai, south-west China

Horrifying: Just hours later the whale shark was seen, it was found dead and hung up in the city’s harbour

Anger at the killing: The images of before and after have caused outrage on China’s social media sites

The pictures were first shared on Chinese social media by ‘Beihai fa bu’, the official account of the Beihai city office.

The post, which appeared on May 7, read: ‘Yesterday, social media users widely shared the pictures of a whale shark spotted next to an oilfield.

‘The scene of the marine mammal swimming freely made people happy.’

The post then went on saying: ‘Today however, there is news saying the whale shark has been caught and killed. There are pictures showing the animal being lifted up in the harbour.

‘Because it’s hard to identify the exact location and date, we hope people with information to come forward.’

According to the Beihai Aquatic Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau, they are currently investigating the case to see if it is definitely the same fish spotted one day earlier.

Rare animal: Whale sharks are considered to be threatened according to the World Wildlife Fund

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Shocking: The Beihai Aquatic Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau are still investigating the case

The images have been shared online and have outraged Chinese internet users.

On Facebook, Lee An wrote: ‘Why did they kill the shark? Barbarians.’

While Ed D Vash said: ‘So what happened to the fishermen who illegally killed this gentle giant.’

While on China’s Twitter like Weibo people have been upset about the capture of the animal.

‘Li Ziyan 49014’ said: ‘This looks like a baby shark by its size. Human beings are too cruel. ‘

While ‘Yu luo chi tang 2’ commented: ‘I feel so sad to see it killed. Why do we have to slaughter it in such a cruel way?

‘Every time when I read reports like this, I don’t want to keep reading. The more we kill, the closer we are to the end of the world.’

Sad case: Unfortunately this isn’t the first case of whale sharks being captured and killed in China

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the whale shark is the biggest fish and shark in the world.

They are usually found wandering the oceans alone.

These giant fish are considered to be vulnerable.

Whale sharks are in demand for their meat and fins worldwide, according to World Wildlife Fund.

They are often caught accidentally by those using large fishing nets.

This isn’t the first case of giant whale sharks being captured and killed in China.

In August 2015, sickening footage emerged of a Whale Shark in China being slowly sawed into pieces while it was still alive.

It’s unclear where exactly in China it took place, however the Weibo user who posted the video online told reporters from Thepaper.cn that he witnessed the scene in Yangjiang in southern China’s Guangdong province.