A woman who was pulled into crocodile-infested waters in northwestern Australia when a shark bit her finger as she attempted to feed it, has described the terrifying moment which nearly cost her a digit.
Melissa Brunning said she was on a yacht in the remote Kimberley region when she tried to hand-feed up to four Tawny nurse sharks hanging around the back of the boat.
The two-metre creature – which has strong jaws and rows of sharp teeth – sucked at her right index finger “like a Hoover (vacuum cleaner)”, she told The West Australian late Saturday.
Mobile phone footage of the incident at Dugong Bay in late May, aired by Channel Seven on Saturday, showed Brunning screaming as she was dragged into the water before the boat’s crew and friends quickly pulled her out.
She sustained cuts, a fracture, a torn ligament and a bad infection on her finger as a result of the encounter, but miraculously did not lose the digit.
