Doctors said the boy emerged from Bavaria’s Irsee lake with his Achilles tendon severed and had assumed he had stepped on broken glass. They later concluded that he had been bitten by a unknown predator

Munich Zoological Institute, which examined photographs of the bite said boy’s wounds had most likely been inflicted by an alligator snapping turtle – a species common in the United States which “eats almost anything it can catch.”

The turtle, which is not indigenous to Germany, is believed to be an exotic pet released into the wild. It’s eight year-old victim has appealed to the authorities not to hurt the turtle should it be found: ” It should be taken to a zoo,” he insisted.