British student was attacked by a 10ft crocodile while travelling with friends on a gap year holiday in southern Africa.
Gatekeepers News reports that Amelie Osborn-Smith, from Andover, Hampshire, was enjoying a day of white water rafting in the Zambezi River below Victoria Falls in Zambia when she was attacked by the 10ft Crocodile which put her into a ‘death roll’.
Brent Osborn-Smith, the father of the 18-year-old girl told MailOnline that his daughter had been resting her leg over the side of the boat when the crocodile clamped its jaws around her calf and dragged her under the water.
The 60-year-old Army Major-turned-osteopath said: “She’s a very sensible girl, but on this occasion, she was being guided by the rafting company and it was on their advice.
“She wasn’t actually swimming but just sitting on the boat and the crocodile saw her leg dangling in the water and thought ‘there’s lunch’.
Amelie, who is backpacking after finishing her A-levels at St Swithun’s School, an all-girls boarding school in Winchester, was saved by a male friend who fought off the animal.
She was reportedly airlifted to hospital in the capital Lusaka for life-saving surgery – and to try to save her shredded leg.
Osborn-Smith said: “She’s in a pretty bad state at the moment in Zambia and we’re doing our best to try and get her back to have some proper definitive care here, but obviously with a crocodile bite there’s a huge risk of infection and she’s got a very severely damaged leg. It’s quite a distressing situation.
“She’s been stabilised as best they can but it’s still pretty touch and go and we’re trying to arrange appropriate consultants here lined up.
“The other issue is that Zambia is now on the Covid red list, so there are various hoops which need to step through quite carefully.”
Amelie’s friend said: “As soon as it happened the male friend dived under the water and started punching the crocodile furiously.
“Then others jumped in to help. It was chaos. There was blood and people thrashing everywhere. She is lucky to be alive.’
“The guides and fellow rafters also leapt into the river in a bid to save her.
“Eventually the croc gave up and they pulled her back into the boat,’ said the friend.
“She was in quite a bad way. They patched her up as best they could and arranged an emergency med-evac.”
