Amelie Osborn-Smith was left fighting for her life after the three-metre reptile dragged her into a death roll as she swam with friends in the Zambezi River near the Victoria Falls.

"You don't really think in that situation, obviously people say you see your life flash before your eyes or whatever but you don't, you just think 'how do I get out of this situation?'," she said.

"Your brain just goes into overdrive and you just think how to get out but I was just very, very lucky.

"When the accident happened I fully accepted the fact I was going to lose my foot and I accepted that and I'd said to all my friends, 'It's fine, I've lost my foot, I'm still alive'.

"Then I was told my foot is fine and I'm going to be able to walk again and it's such a relief."

The teenager was on a white-water rafting trip during a gap-year visit to Zambia where her grandmother owns a farm, according to British newspaper The Sun.

The paper reported she was rescued by friends who punched the crocodile before dragging her back into a boat.

She was flown by helicopter to an aid post in nearby Livingstone and then on to the capital Lusaka, 385km away, where surgeons managed to save her foot.

Australian Associated Press