Broken bungee cord sends woman into river

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- An Australian woman tourist survived a bungee cord failure, falling 360 feet head-first into a crocodile-infested African river, authorities said.

Southern Province police commissioner Brenda Muntemba said 22-year-old Erin Langworthy's Dec. 31 accident happened at the Victoria Falls bridge over the Zambezi River separating Zambia and Zimbabwe, Australia's Adelaide Advertiser reported in its Monday edition.

"The rope bungee cord cut while going down but she managed to swim to the Zimbabwean side," Muntemba said.

The Western Australian said she blacked out when she hit the water but began swimming to free herself and get to the surface.

"I actually had to swim down to yank the bungee cord out of what it was caught in," Langworthy. "All the water I inhaled meant I couldn't breathe and I made them roll me on to my side and that's when I started coughing up water and blood."

Langworthy was treated at in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls clinic and then evacuated to South Africa, the Advertiser said.