Two people wrestle the animal off girl at camp ground on South Stradbroke island

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

It took two people to wrestle a goanna off an eight-year-old girl after it attacked her at a beach south of Brisbane on Thursday afternoon.

The goanna bit the girl at a beachside camp ground on South Stradbroke island, Queensland Ambulance said.

“It was a very concerning incident,” the senior operations supervisor, Jayney Shearman, said.

“Whilst walking through a camping ground [she] was attacked by a goanna that made quite a nasty laceration.

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“It was quite difficult to get the goanna off the child and needed a couple of people to become involved to remove it from her foot.”

The shocked child has a deep wound on the top of her foot.

“She was quite distressed ... Any wildlife is notoriously unpredictable, so on this occasion it was a nasty and savage attack,” Shearman said.

Volunteer marine rescue helped paramedics take the girl to Gold Coast University hospital where she was in a stable condition on Thursday evening.

Experts said goanna bites can be dangerous because the carnivores feed on carrion, and toxic bacteria in their mouths can cause pain, swelling and prolonged bleeding.