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Perth girl's close call after world's most deadly octopus emerges from inside shell she'd taken home

December 5, 2018

A girl in Perth, Australia, had a lucky escape after unknowingly taking home a deadly species of octopus following a trip to the beach.

The girl wasn’t aware that shells she had bought home from Coogee Beach contained a blue-ringed octopus.

The girl’s auntie was washing the shells when she discovered the animal.

Blue-ringed octopuses are highly venomous species found in tide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It releases a chemical, tetrodotoxin, that aims to paralyse, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

There are two-known deaths from the species in Australia with victims usually remaining conscious but dying from a lack of oxygen as the toxin paralyses the muscles.

Coogee Beach WA Surf Life Saving Club  posted on Facebook about the dangerous creature.

"A young girl was at the beach this morning in front of our club building sandcastles and collecting shells," the post read.

"Lucky her Aunty was cleaning the stash of shells when they got home as this critter emerged, they look beautiful....but a bite can be deadly."

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