Dolphin attacks woman on board pleasure boat in New Zealand

A woman was seriously injured when a dolphin leapt from the water and hit her as she rode in a small boat in New Zealand on Tuesday, a news report said.

Photo: Dolphin attacks woman on board pleasure boat in New Zealand

The unidentified 27-year-old woman was sitting in the bow of a small pleasure craft when the dolphin sprang from the water near Slipper Island in the Bay of Plenty on North Island's east coast, the New Zealand Association Press said.

"It jumped up out of the water and hit the woman, giving her a number of injuries," the agency quoted an unidentified spokesman for Auckland Rescue Helicopter as saying.

The dolphin swam off unharmed after it apparently leapt from quite a distance away from the boat and didn't see it, he told the AP.

"I've never heard of a dolphin hitting someone on a boat. You can't even catch them on lures when you go game fishing. They're too smart," he said.

The woman was in Auckland Hospital's intensive care unit in serious condition. No further information was available on her injuries from the hospital.