Woman attacked by wild boar on Spanish beach

A wild boar sent sunbathers fleeing in terror on a Costa del Sol beach before attacking a woman.

The disorientated animal rushed out of the sea as people on vacation watched on in horror, before preying on the retiree.

Emergency responders were alerted to the incident just after 11 a.m. on Friday morning.

Baffled lifeguards quickly sounded the alarm at El Albir beach, just north of Benidorm, Spain, as the beast began running wild.

It had been spotted in the water by boat crews who alerted attendants on the sand as it approached the shores.

They had been unable to catch the slippery boar in the sea and attempted to warn sun-worshippers to get out of the way.

The animal is believed to have come from the nearby Serra Gelada Natural Park.

It consists of over 5,000 acres of protected coastline in the municipalities of Benidorm, Alfaz del Pi and Altea.

It is unclear how the wild boar ended up in the sea.

Terrifying footage of the surreal incident showed locals and tourists screaming and taking cover as the wild boar ran over their towels.

It then made a beeline for the 67-year-old woman and bit her leg after it collided with her during the mid-morning mayhem.

Her “minor” injury was cleansed as a precaution and she is believed to have been told to take antibiotics to prevent infection.

The woman, whose nationality is not yet known, was treated at a local health center.

Lifeguards managed to chase the wild boar away from the beach – but it headed towards a string of crowded seafront bars and cafes.

Its current whereabouts are unknown.

Wild boars have increasingly come into towns and cities to forage for food, with the numbers growing during the coronavirus pandemic.

The bedlam on the beach comes just days after it emerged locals in Denia are using archers to protect tourists from the animals roaming the streets.

Officials in the resort, around a 40-minute drive north, previously placed cage traps at strategic points around the municipality.

They want to reduce the growing numbers of wild boars leaving their natural habitat in the countryside to look for food.

The cages were fitted with cameras to enable town hall chiefs to keep count of the number of wild boars captured and avoid accidents involving people getting trapped by mistake.

But the system yielded poor results – resulting in them calling on expert archers to help deter wild boars.

Colombian pop star Shakira revealed in September last year that she was “attacked” by two wild boars who tried to “rob” her while she was in a park in Barcelona with her son Milan, now nine.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.