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ARGENTINA

Flesh-eating fish bite bathers in river

A school of carnivorous fish attacked hundreds of Argentines cooling off in a river near the city of Rosario, sending at least 70 to local clinics and emergency rooms for treatment.

The attack by palometas, a type of piranha, occurred as city dwellers attempted to escape the 100-degree heat of Christmas Day in the Southern Hemisphere's summer season.

"There were some people that the fish literally had torn bits of flesh from," a medical official at the scene, Gustavo Centurion, was quoted as saying by the Latin Times newspaper.

A 7-year-old girl lost a finger to the fish, and dozens of people suffered serious bites to their extremities, news agencies reported.

The incident occurred along the Parana River, about 200 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

- Los Angeles Times