A sneaky seagull swooped down and snatched a slice of pizza right out of a tourist’s hands one second after she’d taken a bite.

Shenicquia Fulton was visiting Venice’s iconic Rialto Bridge in May when she decided to get a memory of her eating authentic Italian pizza by the city’s famous canals.

Hilarious footage – which has been viewed more than a 1.5million times - shows the 34-year-old taking a bite of a fresh slice of cheese pizza when an opportunistic bird appeared over her right shoulder and snatched the snack away.

Once the food had fallen to the floor the first bird was joined by others who appeared to burst out laughing as they shared the spoils.

Shenicquia, from Charleston, South Carolina, US, said: “At first I didn’t know what had happened until I saw feathers and realised that a bird swooped into my face.

“It all happened so fast and I didn’t know how to react to I just dropped the pizza and ran.

“My husband was recording and thought it was funny so he kept recording them fighting over my pizza.

“I was scared because I didn’t know if they would chase me so I got away from them and let them enjoy the pizza.

“It was a fresh slice of cheese pizza. I didn’t see any seagulls and I was so shocked they attacked me because I had my pizza box open while I was taking photos and they didn’t bother me once.”

A sneaky seagull swooped down and snatched a slice of pizza right out of a tourist’s hands one second after she’d taken a bite.

Shenicquia Fulton was visiting Venice’s iconic Rialto Bridge in May when she decided to get a memory of her eating authentic Italian pizza by the city’s famous canals.

Hilarious footage – which has been viewed more than 1.5million times - shows the 34-year-old take a bite of a fresh slice of cheese pizza when an opportunistic bird appeared over her right shoulder and snatched the snack away.

Once the food had fallen to the floor the first bird was joined by others who appeared to burst out laughing as they shared the spoils.

Shenicquia, from Charleston, South Carolina, USA, said: “At first I didn’t know what had happened until I saw feathers and realised that a bird swooped into my face.

“It all happened so fast and I didn’t know how to react to I just dropped the pizza and ran.

“My husband was recording and thought it was funny so he kept recording them fighting over my pizza.

“I was scared because I didn’t know if they would chase me so I got away from them and let them enjoy the pizza.

“It was a fresh slice of cheese pizza. I didn’t see any seagulls and I was so shocked they attacked me because I had my pizza box open while I was taking photos and they didn’t bother me once.”