Horror ‘Jaws-style’ attack on beach as actress bitten six times in terrifying mauling by SEAL sending swimmers fleeing
AN actress was bitten six times as she was mauled by an angry seal at a beach.
Swimmers fled from the sea in Cape Town, South Africa, as the blubbery beast unleashed its attack in what has been likened to a scene out of Jaws.
Shocking footage shows the seal splashing about in the shallows before making a beeline for a boy.
The sea critter can be seen chasing the youngster and nipping at his heels as he frantically tries to run away.
Several men rush to his rescue and push the seal pup away before dragging the lad from the sea.
It then attacks actress Loulou Taylor, who has appeared in a host of US telly series including Raised with Wolves.
She screams in the water as she tries to fight off the thrashing marine animal.
Several horrified onlookers dash over to help as one man grabs the seal by its tail.
He eventually tosses it back into the sea when everyone is out of the water.
Experts say the seal may have acted up as it was “trausmatised” as people were “screaming and kicking” it.
Loulou said she was bitten six times in the horror attack on Tuesday at Clifton Fourth Beach and had to go to hospital for treatment.
In a post on Instagram, she also included an image of the Jaws poster with the great white shark replaced by a seal.
She claimed that algae bloom that releases neurotoxins are to blame for the increase in seal attacks.
According to reports, two people were treated for bite wounds following the seal attack.
After the incident, the City of Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, and the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) urged beachgoers to always maintain a safe distance from marine wildlife.
The NSRI stated that similar incidents involving aggressive seals took place at Noordhoek and Fish Hoek in recent months.
The Cape Good Hope SPCA said announced that they are investigating the reasons why the seal pup acted in such a way.
They added: “Although the SPCA did visit the scene of the incident, the child and woman who were attacked by the seal had left by the time the SPCA Inspectors arrived.”
Experts at the Department of Environmental Affairs are also investigating the beach incident.
Hout Bay Seal Rescue Centre said: “When we arrived the incident had not happened yet.
“The animal went into the ocean and this is when the chaos happened, with people shouting and screaming, the poor animal was so traumatised it was biting people and going crazy.
“People were beating it and kicking it.
“We were then asked to stand down by the COCT and not remove the animal in front of people after the incident, as it might be upsetting.
“The beachgoers were lucky… it was only a yearling approximately 12 months old, weighing no more than 10kg by the looks of it.
“If that was a fully grown seal, the headlines would have been very different.”
The investigations into the incident are ongoing.
