Large eel attacks child swimmer

Nine-year-old Billie Buchanan had a painful start to the swimming season after being left bruised and bleeding by an eel attack.

Billie and her sister Lucy were swimming in the Kopuaranga Stream at Clarke Memorial Domain in Mauriceville when the large eel clamped its jaws on to her thigh.

"They were just paddling around in the water and then there was blood, not a lot, but there were three puncture wounds at the top," mum Katrina said.

"She said, 'It feels like something bit me' and she got out. We didn't see it or anything, it's quite dirty at the moment so we couldn't see."

Billie was taken to the hospital for a tetanus shot and was told that, other than bruising and a slight a limp for now, she would be fine.

But she and and sister Lucy said they would never go back in the river.

Eel expert Joe Potangaroa said the size of the eel's bite indicated it was probably about 1m long.

He said eels had rows of short, sharp, inward-sloping teeth, and it would have sucked inward as it clamped onto Billie's leg, causing the bruising.

"It's not that they don't like people, they are usually attracted by smell or movement in the water.

"If someone has food on their clothes then the eel might want to come and explore," he said. "It's not like Jaws or anything."