CROCODILE HUNTER STEVE IRWIN POSES WITH BABY SUMATRAN TIGER CUBS AT MOGO ZOO SOUTH OF SYDNEY.
Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin poses with three pure bred Sumatran tiger cubs at Mogo Zoo, south of Sydney April 27, 2004. Irwin was killed in 2006. REUTERS

Seven years after the death of Steve Irwin, the cameraman who filmed the tragic incident has revealed his final words for the first time.

Irwin's camerman and diving partner Justin Lyons revealed the wildlife expert said simply 'I'm dying' before passing away.

Irwin, nicknamed the Crocodile Hunter, was killed in September 2006 when the serrated barb of a stingray's tail pierced his heart in shallow water at Batt Reef in north Queensland.

Lyons revealed Irwin's final words during an interview on Network Ten's morning show Studio 10, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Lyons said that Irwin was stabbed hundreds of times by a giant stingray which they came across while finding something to film in chest-high water.

"I was saying to him things like 'think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on', and he calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying' and that was the last thing he said."

Refuting speculation that Irwin provoked the ray, Lyons said he was to film a final shot of the stingray swimming away from Irwin when the unfortunate happened.

"I had the camera on, I thought this is going to be a great shot, and all of sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds," Lyons said during the show.

"I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away and I didn't know it had caused any damage. It was only when I panned the camera back that I saw Steve standing in a huge pool of blood."

According to Lyons, the stingray left Irwin with a two-inch-wide injury over his heart with blood and fluid oozing.

"He obviously didn't know it had punctured his heart ... even if we had got him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn't have been able to save him," he said.

"I was saying to him things like 'think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on', and he calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying' and that was the last thing he said."

Steve Irwin's death video was never been released and all copies were reportedly destroyed by the police on the request of his family.

"I don't know what's happened to it and I hope it would never see the light of day," Lyons said.

Wtach Lyon's interview: