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B.C. woman attacked by river otter while swimming

River otter standing on tree roots. Photo by Ian W Douglas/Shutterstock

While swimming in a B.C. lake earlier this month, Surrey resident Theresa Weltzin got into an underwater tussle with a river otter who managed to bite her nine times.

Weltzin was about halfway across Greeny Lake when she noticed the otter heading her way.

“I stop and watch and wonder, and then it goes below the surface probably about 10 feet away, and then it bites me and I scream,” she told CBC News.

Luckily, family members were able to come to her rescue via kayak. Weltzin’s brother-in-law is a firefighter and, according to reports, he treated her wounds the best he could before they rushed her to the closest doctor.

The images below show the wounds on Weltzin’s calf, thigh, and hand.

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(Images courtesy of the CBC)

According to reports, locals in the Greeny Lake area haven’t heard of anything like this happening in the region before, however, attacks have occurred in other places across North America.

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