64-Year-Old Woman Bitten And Dragged Underwater By Sea Turtle While Holidaying

An elderly Russian tourist is reeling from the aftermath of being attacked by a sea turtle while holidaying on the coast of Turkey.

Lidia Bazarova, 64, said she was at the popular Güzeolaba Resort, a place she has frequently visited in the coastal region of Antalya when the incident took place.

Bazarova was only about 11 or 12 feet from the shore when a carnivorous loggerhead sea turtle pounced on her and bit her backside, the New York Post reported Monday.

" ... Something grabbed my backside. It was really scary. I didn't know what it was that suddenly grabbed me," the woman told IHA news agency, as quoted by LADbible.

Bazarova was stuck in a tight grip held by the creature and dragged into the water. Loggerhead sea turtles can weigh up to 375 pounds and feed on crabs, whelks and other mollusks.

"I was beating about the water with my arms, I was drowning," the woman continued. "The creature let me go only to grab me with an even stronger bite. I don't know how long it lasted."

Bazarova said the terrifying ordeal came to an end after a "rescuer" saw her plight.

A lifeguard named Mustafa Sarı made his way towards Bazarova and managed to get the shelled creature to let go of the woman.

"He rushed to me and started to yell at [the creature]. I guess it switched attention to the rescuer," Bazarova added.

The petrified woman swam back to shore as the heroic lifeguard tried to scare the turtle away.

"I raced towards the shore. I don't know how he was, but his arm is broken," Bazarova reportedly said. "I was fighting my pain and my fear. Morally it was awful."

While Sarı suffered an arm injury, Bazarova suffered wounds on her hip, butt, legs and fingers. She was captured in a video sitting next to her daughter with bruises on her body.

Bazarova, who was an avid ocean-lover before the attack, said she may never be able to take a plunge into the water again because of the traumatizing event.

Her daughter, Kamila, thanked the lifeguard that saved her. "Without him, maybe the result would have been bad. There were similar cases before. It bit a woman and a man before my mother," she said.

"We want a warning posted about this danger," the daughter added. "It is terrible that we will no longer go into the sea."