It looks like a moment of terror – a diver finds her leg clamped in the jaws of a beluga whale. In fact, it was a stunning example of an animal coming to the rescue of a human life.
Yang Yun, 26, was taking part in a free diving contest without breathing equipment among the whales in a tank of water more than 20ft deep and chilled to Arctic temperatures.
She says that when she tried to return to the surface, she found her legs crippled by cramp from the freezing cold. At that point Mila the beluga took a hand, or rather a flipper.
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Lifesaver: Beluga whale Mila pushes stricken diver Yang Yun to the surface after Yun’s legs cramped during a competition, leaving her paralysed
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Mila tries to manoeuvre Yun with her mouth before pushing her to the surface. The whale has been credited with saving the 26-year-old’s life
‘We suddenly saw the girl being pushed to the top of the pool with her leg in Mila’s mouth,’ said an official at Polar Land in Harbin, north-east China.
‘She’s a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl owes Mila her life.’
Thankfully belugas, which live in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and feed on small fish and squid, have only small teeth and Yang Yun was uninjured.
At depths of 20ft and below, the water pressure keeps a body down, particularly if, as in this case, the limbs are effectively paralysed by the cold.
Reliving the drama, Yang Yun said: ‘I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me – I was dead.
‘Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface.’
Yun safely at the surface of the tank thanks to Mila