A Scottish golfer has survived a crocodile attack in Mexico - only thank to his friends running it over with their golf cart.



Dougie Thomson, 58, was playing a round of golf with his friends in Cancun when a crocodile appeared from shrubbery and clamped its jaws around his thigh.



"My ball was in the bunker [near] thick shrubbery. I didn't even know there was water behind the bushes," he told the Mirror.



"I took a shot and it landed on the green. Then I heard this noise behind me and this huge crocodile snapped me by the thigh."



Thomson said his friends saved his life by beating the three-and-a-half metre crocodile with golf clubs, and running it over with a golf buggy, until it released its grip and returned to the swamp.



"The crocodile tore away all the muscle in my thigh. My leg is like a butcher's shop window," he said.



Thomson was taken to a Mexican hospital where his wound was closed up with 200 staples. His family were arranging for him to fly home for further treatment.



Thomson's brother, Bob Thomson, said the whole family was traumatised and shocked.



"We are worried and wondering what kind of golf course would allow these animals to roam around," he said.



A member of front desk staff at the Iberostar Cancun Golf Course told the Daily Mail that colleagues had seen the incident take place and called for the ambulance that took Thomson to hospital.



It was the second such attack. New Yorker Edward Lunger, 50, was at the same Cancun Golf Club when a crocodile leaped from bushes and bit off two of his fingers.



He was saved when a friend jumped from a golf cart and hit the croc's head with a boulder.