A sea lion has attacked Colombian singer, Shakira, as she enjoys her holiday in Cape Town, South Africa.

Shakira posted about the incident on her Twitter account and followed it up with a full ‘special report’ and photographs of the encounter on Facebook.

Although she was not hurt by the sea lion, she sustained some bruises on her palms.

The incident happened on Sunday.

The popular singer of hit track, ‘Hips don’t lie’, said on Sunday afternoon, she was trying to play with some sea lions and seals.
As she took pictures of the mammals with her BlackBerry phone, a sea lion suddenly lunged at her. But she was swiftly pulled out of harm’s way by her brother.

Shakira later tweeted:
This afternoon I happened to see some sea lions and seals. I thought to myself how cute they were so I decided to get a bit closer than all of the other tourists and went down to a rock trying to pet them doing a baby talk while taking pictures… Suddenly, one of them jumped out of the water so fast and impetuously th…at it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me. Everyone there screamed, including me. I was paralyzed by fear and couldn’t move, I just kept eye contact with it while my brother “Super Tony” jumped over me and literally saved my life, taking me away from the beast. We both got our hands and legs scratched by the rocks while trying to protect ourselves. I believe what happened is that it confused the shiny reflection of the blackberry I was taking these pics with, with some sort of fish. It probably thought I was teasing it with food and then taking it away from it. Wow! It’s funny that only half an hour before I was complaining to my guide Andrew that I never get to see wild animals up close on adventurous trips. Oh well, I can’t say that anymore!! Now I’m off to see some penguins! I hope they are a bit more friendly!”

On Tuesday, Shakira posted about her encounter with penguins on Facebook, saying, ”Today with the penguins! Definitely friendlier!”