Collosal Catfish Bites Berlin Bathers

By Josh Ward

A number of German bathers in Berlin's Schlachtensee lake have been bitten by what is believed to be a giant catfish. Many are now apprehensive about escaping the summer heat with a dip.

After cooling off from the summer heat in one of Berlin's many lakes, ayoung German woman now has a 17-centimeter (6.7-inch) bite to show forit. Local animal experts suspect a giant catfish lies behind the attackand swimmers are now avoiding the lake out of fear of being bitten.

"We were in the water and just swimming around," Katharina Saxe toldtelevision station Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) Monday. "Then (myfriend) asked me if I'd felt it, too. And that's when it latched ontomy leg. It felt like a bite. We bolted away. And then it startedbleeding, too."

Saxe was swimming in Schlachtensee, one of many small lakes aroundBerlin's Grunewald forested area, when the incident happened. She wastaken to a hospital where she received minor treatment for a17-centimeter-long (6.7 inch), crescent-shaped bite on her calf. TheRBB footage shows countless pinprick-like red marks on Saxe's leg,rather than any deep puncture or laceration wounds.

And Katharina is not alone. Jonas Wegg, a teenager who lives nearthe lake, was recently swimming at night when he had an unpleasantunderwater encounter. "I was suddenly bitten on my right calf," Weggtold the mass circulation daily Bild. "I only felt something huge and slippery. It was a shock."

Reports like these have apparently led many swimmers to stay on dryland. "We don't go in the water any more," Berlin student StephanieKahl told Bild. "We just stay near the shore, where the catfish can't go."