Zambia: British teen badly injured from crocodile attack in Zambesi river 'okay'

A British teenager who was badly injured when a crocodile bit her leg and tried to drag her underwater in Livingstone, Zambia, has said she was "very lucky" to have survived the attack.

Amelie Osborn-Smith was evacuated by helicopter to Medland Hospital where she underwent surgical procedures.

In her first interview following the attack, Osborn-Smith said she had "accepted" that she might lose her foot after being taken to hospital and was "so relieved" when she woke up to find that doctors had been able to save it.

According to British media, the teenager from Hampshire has been on a gap-year visiting Zambia, where her grandmother owns a farm.

"When the accident happened, I fully accepted the fact that I was going to lose my foot, and I accepted that, and I had said to my friends: 'It's fine. I have lost my foot. I'm still alive', and then I was told that my foot was going to be fine and that I will be able to walk again, and it's just such a relief."   Osborn-Smith, the crocodile attack survivor said. She had been swimming in the Zambesi river with friends on a white-water rafting trip when the reptile pulled her into a death roll.

British media reported that her friends rescued her by punching the crocodile and getting her to safety.

Osborn-Smith said that he wouldn't want the incident to put anyone off, "because it doesn't happen often" and "if you're going to live thinking 'I'm going to regret everything', you're never going to have a fulfilled life".