DAILY RECORD (Glasgow, UK) 15 December 04 Crocodile Attack On Teenager
A teenager washing his face in a lake at night was suddenly gripped by a large crocodile.
It sprang out of the water in the dark and clamped its jaws around Drewe Ramsden's head.
His friends were shocked by the speed of its silent attack in Queensland, Australia.
But they screamed and threw tins of beer and rocks at it.
Their 18-year-old pal punched it and managed to get free before the 8ft saltwater crocodile slid back into the Barron River in Cairns.
Drewe, who needed nine stitches on the puncture wounds on his head and neck, said: 'I had my head under the water. My mates were calling out 'Croc, croc' but I didn't hear them.
'I didn't even know what it was but I fought it off.'
One of his friends stemmed the blood flow with a T-shirt while another pal raised the alarm.
Jarrah Ella, 19, who was one of the group sitting around drinking, said it was a shocking attack in an area where there had been no recent sightings of crocodiles.
He said the first they knew it was there was when they heard 'a bit of splash and commotion'.
He said: 'I looked up and saw what looked like a tiny boat powering through the water with this wave in front of it and then we realised it was a croc and it was going straight for Drewe.'
Wildlife rangers set traps for the crocodile yesterday.
Drewe said the attack would not put him off returning to fish.
Crocodile Attack On Teenager