A video of a “mermaid” losing her tail has gone viral.

The TikTok post captioned “Mermaid went wrong” shows the beautiful young lady in a mermaid tail and bikini top gracefully swimming around in an aquatic tank inside Cresta Mall in Johannesburg until, out of the blue, she quickly gets rid of her tail and swims to the surface.

The clip posted by @fezilemagula has been viewed over 17 million times.

@fezilemagula
Mermaid went wrong 😂![CDATA[]]>😂
♬ original sound - F. Magula

While many viewers joked about it, it was in fact a serious matter as @Nokukhanya.the_mermaid explained in a video response.

Nokukhanya whose real name is Gabriela Green-Thompson, took to the app to respond to one of the comments in the original post.

The comment by @jax6804 read: “She transformed under water.”

Nokukhanya responded: “Remember Water Has its Dangers. Every Professional Mermaid has to know how to eject out of their tails in case of an emergency. It's unfortunate that it spoilt the magic in the moment, but it proves to be an important teaching opportunity. Safe swimming this festive season everyone.”

In the video she went onto explain what happened.

She said: “As you can see, my tail got caught in the coral, and due to the air releasing out of my lungs, I could not retrieve it. And therefore, I did a quick release. And this is what we practice for.”

@nokukhanya.the_mermaid Replying to @jax6804 Remember Water Has its Dangers Every Professional Mermaid has to know how to eject out of their tails in case of an emergency. It's unfortunate that it spoilt the magic in the moment, but it proves to be an important teaching opportunity. Safe swimming this festive season everyone 💛![CDATA[]]>🧜![CDATA[]]>🏽‍♀️💛 #mermaid #watersaftey #watersafteyawareness #mermaids ♬ Sunny - TELL YOUR STORY music by Ikson™

People flocked to the comment section to praise her for her quick response.

“Impressive😂🥰🥰 I screamed " Ariiiiiel " 😂😂 So glad you're trained for this. Your quick response was incredible 🥰,” said one viewer.

Another person commented: “I am SO glad you got out safely!! You did the perfect thing there - that was a textbook perfect tail bail!”