Experts are warning parents to keep an eye on children paddling in Britain’s lakes, rivers and canals as there are snapping turtles and terrapins lurking beneath the waters.
A spokesperson from the Wetheriggs Animal Rescue and Conservation Centre explained to The Sun that they had found a number of snapping turtles, adding they could potentially bite children in the water.
"They are carnivores. They will eat anything that moves. We had two snapping turtles as well as the terrapins, and they could very easily take the finger off a small child,” they said.
"If you have kids paddling in a river, the turtles could easily snap off a toe or a finger. They can become quite aggressive when they have grown.”
Believing the rise in the sea creatures is due to people, who bought terrapins without realising how big they could grow, “setting them free” in their local lake, Jonathan Ludford, of the Canal and River Trust, said they are starting to breed now.
“Many people who bought tiny terrapins didn’t realise they could get so big and when they grew they did what they thought was right, setting them free. Terrapins need warm water to breed so the rivers and lakes in the UK have previously been too cold,” he explained.
"The warmer weather has contributed to a gradual warming of the waterways, so breeding is more likely."
