A NEW Zealand woman nearly died after her hand has accidentally severed during holiday sex on a yacht in Croatia.

The woman, 28, was having sex with a British man on a bathroom sink aboard the yacht when the sink broke, severing her hand when she fell, the Croatian Times reported.

"It appears they were engaged in a passionate act in the bathroom where at some stage the sink broke - leaving a jagged edge that severed the woman's hand when she fell to the floor," police spokesman Kraljevic Gudelj said.

"The young woman almost died, and was only saved after she was airlifted to hospital where doctors managed to reattach the severed limb. It had only been attached by a small amount of skin."

Police from the island of Hvar said the woman's hand was reattached during a six-hour operation in Split. Police were now trying to track down the Briton.

"We believe it was probably an accident but the British man has fled and the New Zealand girl is understandably hard to speak to at the moment. We want to track him down to find out his side of the story," Mr Gudelj said.

Originally published as Woman's hand severed during sex