A fifteen-year-old schoolgirl bit the eye of a crocodile in a daring act of bravery that saved her life.

She had been grabbed and caught in the reptile's jaws along the banks of Athi River and was seconds away from death when her last ditch act saved her.

And Elizabeth Mweke Mwasia, a primary schoolgirl in Makueni District, is recovering at Kenyatta National Hospital following the weekend incident that left her with serious injuries.

Little Mweke was washing her face and hands along the river in Makuyu area on Saturday as she watered her late father's goats when the crocodile attacked her and attempted to drag her into the water.

She fought for what appeared an eternity before she wriggled herself out of the eight-foot crocodile's jaws and secured her freedom.

Speaking from her hospital bed at Kenyatta, Mweke said she fought with the reptile after it grabbed both her hands.

She bit the reptile in the right eye, prompting it to ease its grip on her hands.

"I was bending down to wash my hands and face as my father's goats sipped water at the base of the river when the reptile grabbed both my hands.

"There was nobody nearby and therefore I had to fight for my dear life single-handedly," said the petite schoolgirl.

Mweke said that after she was thrown into the water, she held the crocodile with both her legs before giving it a mighty bite in the eye that forced the reptile to relax its grip.

However, after the crocodile let go of her hands, it grabbed her right hip and again attempted to pull her into the middle of the river.

Her cries and the sight of the goats scampering away from the scene of the attack attracted employees of Tsavo Safari Camp, which is a stone's throw away from the river and they quickly dashed to the schoolgirl's rescue.

The crocodile left Elizabeth, who is a Standard Six pupil at Kamuyu Primary School, go free after the rescuers closed in.

Mweke suffered a fractured right arm and a right hip injury.

She said that although she lost a lot of blood in the scaring battle with the reptile, she could vividly remember seeing her rescuers rushing her to a private hospital at Mtito Andei.

She received first aid at the hospital before she was taken to the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.

A nurse on duty at the facility yesterday said Elizabeth "is out of danger" and was responding well to treatment.

Earlier at the hospital, Elizabeth's mother, Mrs Marieta Muteti Mwasia, a widow, had explained that the notorious reptile has killed two other people in the past.

Other than claiming the two lives, the crocodile has also devoured more than a dozen goats and a cow.