Tourists on a popular Spanish beach received a bit of a shock when wild boars started rifling through their belongings.

A group of around six boars were filmed rummaging through bags, likely looking for food and water, just east of Marbella on the Costa del Sol.

A child was filmed running towards her mum in fear as two of the boars came within inches of her, while they were fighting over an item they’d stolen.

The boars were filmed clambering over sun beds and shoving their snouts into bags to sniff out food.

One brave – or silly – sunbather with a beer in his hand tried to shoo the animals away from another group of sun loungers.

A rural security guard organisation, commenting on the extraordinary scenes, said: ‘Wild boars don’t hide at day or at night.

‘Here they are on a beach in Marbella in broad daylight, searching for food and water.’

Wild boars have become a regular sight in many towns as urban development encroaches on their natural habitat.

And it is not the first time they have been seen on Costa beaches, although so far this year in Spain animal alerts have come mainly from the water itself thanks to a series of shark sightings and ever-present jellyfish.

In June last year a sunbather was injured after being bitten by a wild boar on a beach near Benidorm.

It happened at El Albir beach, just north of the famous Costa Blanca resort, after the disorientated animal rushed out of the sea as lifeguards sounded the alarm and attacked the woman.

Medics who treated her at a local health centre said at the time they believed the victim’s bite injury may have been caused when the wild boar charged her and collided with her around where its teeth are.

Her ‘minor’ leg injury was cleansed as a precaution and she was told to take antibiotics to prevent infection.

Footage of the extraordinary incident showed locals and tourists screaming and taking cover as the wild boar ran over their towels and along the sand where moments earlier they had been tanning themselves in near-30°C heat.

Last August another powerful wild boar, believed to be around three years old, was filmed emerging from the Mediterranean and running up family-friendly Benajarafe Beach on the eastern Costa del Sol a half-hour drive from Malaga.

Terrified tourists and locals could be heard screaming as the 10-stone beast swam towards the shoreline, with one overheard yelling in Spanish: ‘Watch out, it’s coming out of the water.’

It narrowly missed an elderly couple in their swimwear and a younger woman behind them as it charged up the beach before disappearing into reeds behind the sand.

It was later affectionately christened ‘the wild boar shark’ by locals.

Locals and tourists were warned not to approach it at the time because of its sharp fangs, with one expert saying: ‘Although it doesn’t attack it could do you a lot of damage just by grazing you.

‘People who encounter it should stay still and not worry it.’

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Katie Boyden and Natalia Penza

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