British teenager, 18, ‘very lucky’ to be alive after 10ft crocodile attacked her while on holiday in Zambia

Amelie Osborn-Smith was dragged underwater near Victoria Falls

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An 18-year-old British teenager said she is "very, very lucky" to have survived a crocodile attack while on holiday in Zambia.

Amelie Osborn-Smith had been on a gap year with friends in Zambia, where her grandmother owns a farm.

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She was white-water rafting on the Zambezi river, near the Victoria Falls when the incident happened, The Sun reports.

The moment a 10ft crocodile grabbed her leg

Amelie Osborn-Smith at Medland Hospital after surviving a crocodile bite in Livingstone, ZambiaAmelie Osborn-Smith at Medland Hospital after surviving a crocodile bite in Livingstone, Zambia
Amelie Osborn-Smith at Medland Hospital after surviving a crocodile bite in Livingstone, Zambia

Amelie jumped into the water after being told it was safe by her rafting guides.

While she was swimming back to the boat, the 10ft crocodile grabbed hold of her leg.

The paper said her friends rescued her and punched the crocodile, before dragging her back into the boat.

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Amelie, from Hampshire, was flown by helicopter to an aid post in nearby Livingstone and airlifted to a hospital in Zambia’s capital Lusaka, about 240 miles away.

‘You think, how do I get out of this situation?’

Speaking via video, from her hospital bed in Medland Hospital, she said: "You don’t really think in that situation, obviously people say you see your life flash before your eyes or whatever but you don’t, you just think ‘how do I get out of this situation?’

"And your brain just goes into overdrive and you just think how to get out but I was just very, very lucky.

“When the accident happened I fully accepted the fact I was going to lose my foot and I accepted that and I’d said to all my friends, it’s fine, I’ve lost my foot, I’m still alive and then I was told my foot is fine and I’m going to be able to walk again and it’s such a relief."

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