Hundreds of elusive eels have been caught on camera appearing out of nowhere and vanishing quickly into the sea bed in some rare and eerie underwater footage.

The extraordinary creatures, called spotted garden eels, reach a maximum length of 40cm and are notoriously shy – living in exclusive colonies of various sizes, reports the Story Trender.

This eerie footage, which shows hundreds of the strange creatures popping up from the sea bed and vanishing just as quickly, was captured by Mohamed Siraj Ahmed during a dive in Dharavandhoo Thila, Baa Atoll in The Maldives.

He said, ‘They are a very shy animal, as soon as you get close to them, they slide inside the sand and pop back up again when they feel safe to come out.’

Spotted garden eels have a long thing body and their heads are the same diameter as their bodies.

They can be found throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, from the eastern coasts of Africa including the Red Sea to Polynesia, and south from Japan to New Caledonia.