Zambia crocodile attack: Amelie Osborn-Smith launches school appeal

Amelie Osborn-Smith survived the crocodile attack while on a whitewater rafting trip

A teenager who was badly injured in a crocodile attack has launched an appeal to raise money for an African school.

Amelie Osborn-Smith, 18, from Andover, Hampshire, was whitewater rafting on the Zambezi river in Zambia in December when the animal clamped on to her leg.

Her appeal for a village school in southern Zambia has, so far, raised more than £15,000.

She said she wanted to "give back" to those who helped her get medical treatment after the attack.

The teenager had just started a gap year in the African country when she and a friend went on the rafting trip.

She described how she "took a quick dip" to cool off when the crocodile attacked her.

"I was in the water for a couple of minutes when I felt something go over my legs and I looked down and saw the crocodile - and the next thing I knew I was going underwater," she said.

As the crocodile clamped its jaws and went into a "death roll", Miss Osborn-Smith's friend grabbed her lifejacket to prevent her from being pulled underwater and drowning.

The animal eventually let go as Ms Osborn-Smith was hauled back on to a boat.

She was airlifted to hospital in Lusaka with serious leg injuries and was later repatriated to the trauma unit of a London teaching hospital, where she has gone through a total of seven operations.

'Caring and genuine'

She remains on crutches but said she hoped to make "a near full recovery" and planned to start university later in the year.

She has set up an appeal for a school for the villages of Muke and Delevu near the Zambian city of Livingstone which she hopes will "change hundreds of lives forever".

"I've seen how amazing people are in the face of such a horrible accident and how caring and genuine people are in wanting you get better," she added.

"If I can give back to the people who helped me, its something I'm really passionate about," she added.

Miss Osborn-Smith was whitewater rafting near to Victoria Falls