WOMAN CAUGHT BY OCTOPUS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1922, Page 10

WOMAN CAUGHT BY OCTOPUS

BATHER’S DESPERATE FIGHT. Attacked by a large octopus while bathing in a sheltered cove at Pardigon, near St. Tropez, in the Var Department of France, Mrs. Tattershall-Dodd, of Grosvenor Lodge, Tunbridge Wells, wife of a master at Tunbridge School, had a desperate fight with the creature until it was driven off with a walking-stick by a woman friend. Mrs. Tattershall-Dodd, who was staying at Pardigon, walked down with three woman friends to a rocky cove on the coast. While her friends waded close in shore, Mrs. Tattershall-Dodd went farther out. She had not been in the water more than a few minutes when she felt her leg gripped. She tried to free herself, but the octopus stretched out other feelers and caught her by both legs above the knee. Alarmed, by her cries, Mrs. TattershallDodd’s friends waded out to where she was. One of them, who had a walking-stick in her band, peered under the rock by which Mrs. Tattershall-Dodd standing, and, seeing the head and eyes of the creature, struck at it with all her force until it loosened its grip. Mrs.. Tattershall Dodd was then helped ashore in a shaken condition.

The rock where the animal was hiding was carefully marked down, and two of the party returned later to the attack. The octopus was driven from its shelter bv the aid of sticks and stones and killed. It measured sft 4in across from the tip of one tentacle to another.