A swimmer who was injured by a seal in Brixham has said the animal did not attack her.

Angela Neil sustained minor injuries during the encounter with a grey seal off Breakwater beach on Tuesday, July 16.

She told The Seal Project that the animal mouthed her legs while she swam but did not bite her.

Mouthing is a seal’s way of exploring objects as their flippers are not very sensitive, so they use their mouths to inspect things.

The RNLI’s Torbay team issued an urgent warning to swimmers following the encounter which said that someone had been attacked and taken to hospital.

Its post on Facebook has now been removed.

Angela said the encounter left her with a “mild scratch and light bruising” and a “minor broken skin injury” on her right foot and her lower legs.

She said that the seal was not aggressive towards her and made no audible warning noises.

Angela also said that she was not hospitalised after the encounter – but did go to the hospital to get antibiotics on her doctors’ advice.

The RNLI said it was not involved in the incident but put out what it had heard as a public safety notice to people in the area.

The charity had no record of how often people were attacked by seals but said such incidents were "infrequent".

To read The Seal Project’s full statement, click here: https://bit.ly/2O3irpZ