'15 seconds of mad struggle': Steve Irwin's mate on his final moments

This Sunday marks a decade since Steve Irwin was tragically killed by a stingray barb.

And now, in an emotional interview with Who Magazine, the Crocodile Hunter’s cameraman Justin Lyons has opened up about the legend's final harrowing minutes, and the crew’s tense battle to save their 44-year-old mate.

In the interview, Justin recalls how there were two other Australia Zoo employees with them at the time of the incident, husband-and-wife duo Brian and Kate Coulter.

“It wasn’t very long before we came across this bull ray,” he recalls of the crew’s short expedition off Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, to shoot the documentary, Oceans Deadliest. “Steve, wearing his usual khaki shorts and shirt, said: ‘Quick, quick, let’s get in the water.’ Simple as that.

“I knew exactly what he was going to do. He was going to try to get the stingray between me and him. And then I started filming.”

Having filmed heaps of stingrays before, neither were fearful, which is why the sudden attack was all the more shocking.

“It just started stabbing upwards with its tail,” he recalls graphically. “Steve, above it, was thrashing about with his hands. It was a flurry of bubbles.”

After 'fifteen seconds of a mad struggle', the stingray swam away, leaving Steve in a state of panic, screaming that the creature had 'punctured me lung.'

Justin adds that they all rushed to the star and yanked him onboard the boat, where Brian urged him to, “Hang on, Stevo, think of your kids… hang in there…”

On the way to the hospital, Justin says he attempted CPR on Steve, but the closest emergency service department was located 15km north-east of Port Douglas at Low Isles. At this point, Steve was already unconscious.

It took the crew 45 minutes to get to Low Isle, where Justin says he continued CPR while the defibrillator was being set up.

Twenty minutes later, the chopper arrived to take Steve to hospital in Cairns, but it was too late.

“Within 10 seconds they pronounced him dead,” Justin recalls. “That was the world falling apart.”

As for the footage, Justin says the police put it in a sealed envelope and that was that.

A sentiment echoed from his first tell all with Studio 10 back in March 2014.

What’s more, Justin tells Who that he already had to recall the horrific events to Steve’s wife Terri at Australia Zoo.

“She had all her family around her,” he recalls. “[It] was fairly intense.”

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Steve's daughter Bindi, recently shared a heartfelt Instagram post to remember her dad on her 18th birthday.

“Our Dad, Mum's soulmate and a superhero for us all, passed away. However, since this photo was taken, 18 years ago, one life ingredient has remained, unchanged, unbreakable,” she continued.

“That is the unconditional love that is shared between my beautiful little family and the loyalty we have to each other and everyone else who has taken this journey with us. I don't think that when this photo was taken even my beautiful parents could have known what life would evolve. I know that I am endlessly grateful for the love and light I have been given since Day 1 of my life.”

GALLERY: Happy 18th birthday Bindi Irwin: Wildlife warrior all grown up!

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