Two-metre catfish chomps on German swimmer

When a young woman went for a swim in an idyllic south Bavarian region, she got more than she bargained for.

A two-metre-long catfish has attacked a woman in a Bavarian lake by biting her in the thigh, local newspaper Straubinger Tagblatt reports.

The woman was able to swim back to shore after the encounter with the unusually large fish near the town of Koessnach, but sustained bite and scratch marks to the right thigh, the report said.

Johannes Schnell of the Bavarian Fishing Association said the bite marks pointed to the fact that the catfish was a male and the fish was protecting its eggs.

Schnell told Straubinger Tagblatt that such incidents are not uncommon during spawning season, adding that a catfish is unlikely to launch a life-threatening attack.

The average length of a catfish is about 1.2 to 1.6 metres.