After completing her A-levels, Amelie Osborn-Smith decided to take a trip to Zambia to enjoy the natural wonders of the world with her troupe of friends. But what was supposed to be an adventurous gap-year trip turned into a horrifying nightmare when she was attacked by a 10-foot-long crocodile.
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River rafting gone horribly wrong
As reported by Mail Online, she was white river rafting in the Zambezi River when the incident took place. Her father, Brent Osborn-Smith, told the online news source that she was on a trip guided by a rafting company who assured her that crocodile attacks were rare. He 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 the crocodile clamped its jaws onto her leg and dragged her under the water.
Rescued by a true hero
Immediately after she was dragged into the water, her friends, the guides, and other rafters flung themselves into action—in particular a boy who decided to dive underwater and punch the croc until it let go. A source told The Sun:
As soon as it happened he 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.
Amelie was then airlifted to a hospital in the capital city of Lusaka where she received treatment for her ‘severely damaged leg.’ She is currently recovering in the same facility. Her dad added:
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.
He’s now desperately trying to figure out a way to get her back to the United Kingdom but that has also become increasingly difficult after Zambia was added to the red travel list. He continued:
The other issue is that Zambia is now on the Covid red list, so there are various hoops which need to stepped through quite carefully.
