Swim instructor needed 38 stitches after being attacked by an otter while swimming in Lake Tahoe

A Reno swim instructor found herself going toe to toe with an otter while she was out for a swim in Lake Tahoe over the weekend. The attack, she swears, was five minutes long, landed her in the emergency room.

Lynnette Bellin said in a video showing the aftermath of the attack that she had been swimming in Lake Tahoe for 25 years and didn’t even know there were otters there. She found out there were about 30 minutes into a swim Sunday.

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This particular route she was on when she encountered the otter is one that she's been swimming every Sunday since July, reports the Reno Gazette Journal.

"At first I thought it was a person pulling on me because it was so strong," Bellin told the outlet on Monday. "I haven't seen anyone else out there swimming, so I wasn't sure. And then I felt the teeth and claws, and it was relentless."

She says the harder she fought the otter, the more aggressive it became towards her. While fighting it off, she picked it up and tried to throw it. It responded by biting and clawing her hands and face.

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"I'm screaming as it's happening, but there are people on the bike trail and no one can hear me," she said. "Eventually I got to some rocks, but they were slippery, and as I tried to get up, the otter was coming up, too."

Bellin was finally able to get away from the angry otter by climbing up on a bigger rock. The otter circled the area nearby, and she was forced to climb over a fence to a bike trail where she walked back to where she had started her swim barefoot and covered in blood.

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Police, firefighters and an ambulance met her. She would later drive herself to the emergency room where she received 38 stitches and rabies shots.

"Swimming in Lake Tahoe is my absolute favorite thing to do. It is my peace and my sanctuary. I feel like that was robbed from me after the otter attack," Bellin said in a video she posted after her emergency room visit.

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Yet another reminder to keep your head on a swivel out in nature. You never know when a Sunday swim can turn into a battle in the water against a wild otter.