Escaping piranhas in 5,000 km Amazon swim

A Slovenian endurance athlete completed a 4,828-km swim of the Amazon at the weekend, emerging from the water exhausted and delirious but in one piece despite the crocodiles, piranhas and bloodsucking toothpick fish.

Martin Strel, 52, known as Fishman, claimed a world record for distance swimming in a 65-day journey, which took him from the river's headwaters in Peru to Brazil's Atlantic coast.

On reaching the end he was carried into an ambulance to be taken to hospital.