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Holidaymaker left bleeding and with severed tendon after fish bite on Costa Blanca beach

A holidaymaker has released photos of a horrible injury she received when she was bitten while swimming off a beach in Elche, Alicante.

Holidaymaker left bleeding and with severed tendon after fish bite on Costa Blanca beach
Image of injury after it was stitched up at Elche hospital Photo: Ayuntamiento de Elche

The 40-year-old Spanish woman let out a blood curdling scream and was dragged bleeding from the sea by her husband and a lifeguard who came to her aid while she was swimming with her five-year-old son on DAY.

“She felt a great pain,” her husband told local newspaper El Informacion. “And let out a scream that scared us all.”

She was paddling in shallow water which came to just below the knee and at first, she presumed she had stepped on broken glass.

But she was taken to hospital medical staff said it was clear that the injuries were sustained by a fish bite.

She was treated for a partially severed tendon in her foot as well as several other cuts that required stitches.

She was discharged several hours later and left the hospital on crutches and with a bandaged lower leg.

The couple from Valladolid in northern Spain  were on the last day of their holiday, staying at a campsite near El Rebollo beach in Elche on the Costa Blanca.

 Lifeguard service together with local police patrolled the beach looking for the culprit and caught a large Bluefish, which they believe was responsible for the incident.

Known as Pez Golfar in Spanish, the species (Latin name Pomatomus saltatrix) can measure between half a meter to a meter in length and is commonly found in Mediterranean waters.

It does not normally attack people but preys on smaller fish in the shallow water.


Image of a bluefish, the likely culprit. Photo: Wikimedia

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FISH

Teenager dies snorkelling after venomous fish encounter off Costa Brava beach

A 16-year-old was killed while snorkelling off Platja d’Aro in Catalonia after an encounter with a venomous weever fish.

Teenager dies snorkelling after venomous fish encounter off Costa Brava beach
Stock photo: District47/Flickr

The boy, who has not been publically named, suffered anaphylactic shock and died on Saturday afternoon while on a family trip to the beach.

His parents raised the alarm after he disappeared while snorkelling and he was found unconscious nearby by bathers and brought to shore.

Initial post-mortem results show the teenager had a tiny wound on his neck, above his windpipe, and scratches on his face.

His parents told local media that he had been filming marine life with a waterproof camera and that footage retrieved by investigators suggested he had been stung by a weever fish.

“He had been following a jellyfish about 100 metres offshore which led him to a strange and colourful fish with a harmless-looking face,” according to a statement from the parents quoted in La Vanguardia.

“He was only able to film it for 30 seconds from a distance and at the last second it disappeared and stung him around the jaw area.”

A post-mortem has been carried out in nearby Girona where forensic staff are awaiting toxicology results.

The fish has been identified locally as a spotted weever (rachinus araneusa) a species that carries venom in its dorsal spines and buries itself in sand on the seabed.


Photo by Roberto Pillon/creative commons/fishbase.org

They are usually hard to spot and have been known to deliver painful stings to swimmers feet who unknowingly step in them when paddling in shallow water.

But although they can provoke a severe allergic reaction and in rare cases provoke heart attacks such stings rarely prove fatal because those who step on them can usually reach the safety of the shore before drowning.

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