Early morning beachgoers were shocked when they came across a shark washed up on the sand of Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach.

Identified as a three metre-long mako, it washed up at the southern end of the popular swimming beach on Saturday morning.

NSW Police had been alerted of the situation at 11pm on Friday night, with a team of lifeguards removing the dead shark the following morning.

Passer-by Chris Shelby told 9NEWS that he first saw the shark lying motionless in the shallow water.

“He was just lying there and I thought one or two of us could carry him, but it ended up being about six of us – he’s got to be close to 200 kilograms, he’s a big, heavy mako,” he said.

There was an unsightly scene on picturesque Bondi beach this morning. A large shark was found washed up on the sand. #9News pic.twitter.com/SnHcp47YSk

— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) June 15, 2018

“We thought it was better to get him out. You don’t see this at Bondi very often.”

“We were walking along the beach and I saw a crowd of people and I thought ‘what on earth is that?'” beachgoer Scott Wells told The Daily Telegraph.

“I’ve never seen a shark before, only on videos and things. It was unbelievable.”

Mako sharks are common along the east coast of Australia and New Zealand and can grow up to four metres in length.

“You don’t see this very often.” Picture: Twitter/Simon Cheatham

The species of shark is not listed as threatened under the NSW Fisheries Management Act but are listed under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, a NSW Department of Primary Industries spokeswoman told AAP on Saturday.

They are a popular recreational game fish in New South Wales, with recreational fishers limited to taking one per day.

While mako sharks have been responsible for attacks on humans, they are mostly down to provocation or harassment occurring while fishing for the species.

-with AAP