Woman recounts how giant loggerhead turtle dragged her under water after chomping down on her buttocks
ANTALYA, TURKEY: A pensioner faced a near-death situation after she was grabbed and bitten by a giant sea turtle while she was holidaying in Turkey. Lidia Bazarova, 64, was ambushed by a giant loggerhead turtle when she was just 10ft from shore. The turtle, which reportedly weighs as much as a cow, sank its beak into her backside.
"I was really close to shore - some 3 or 4 metres - when I just turned onto my back," Bazarova, who had to visit a hospital for treatment after the horrifying attack, said, according to the Daily Mail. The attack took place at Antalya beach resort Güzeolaba.
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"It was really scary. I didn't know what it was that suddenly grabbed me," she said, adding that the turtle tried to drag her under the water. "I was beating about the water with my arms, I was drowning. The creature let me go only to grab me with an even stronger bite. I don't know how long it lasted," she said.
"Luckily a rescuer man saw me," Bazarova recalled. "He rushed to me and started to yell at [the creature]. I guess it switched attention to the rescuer." Bazarova, horrified by the attack after she finally managed to free herself from the turtle's graps, she made for the beach. The rescuer then battled the animal, finally successfully scaring it away. "I raced towards the shore," Bazarova said. "I don't know how he was, but his arm is broken. I was fighting my pain and my fear."
Bazarova suffered wounds on her buttocks, hip, legs and fingers from the beast's sharp beak and powerful jaw. Sitting comfortably became a struggle for the following the attack. She avoided coming to this spot in the days after the incident, although she did so every other day in resort Güzeolaba. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get back in the sea," she told IHA news agency. The rescuer, who has been identified as a lifeguard named Mustafa Sarı, was reportedly bitten on the shoulder.
Bazarova was was not the only person who has been attacked by the mini-Gamera. Kamila, Bazarova's daughter, said, “It bit a woman and a man before my mother." She added that she wants “a warning posted about this danger.”
According to National Geographic, "The largest of all hard-shelled turtles, loggerheads are named for their massive heads and strong jaws (leatherbacks are bigger but have soft shells). Their reddish-brown shell, or carapace, is heart-shaped. Their front flippers propel them through the water like wings, and their hind feet stabilize and steer them. While adults males generally weigh about 250 pounds, loggerheads of more than a thousand pounds have been found."