AceShowbiz - "Succession" star Crystal Finn was bitten by otters during a swim in a river in northern California. The actress - who played Lauren Pawson in the fourth season of the hit TV - was sent to hospital after she was bitten on her bum and legs during a dip in the Feather River in Plumas National Forest which is around 75 miles from Lake Tahoe.

Crystal described to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper the scary moment she was targeted by the creatures. "I felt something on my backside and on my leg. I started looking around and yelling out and [the otters] popped up right in front of me," she said.

"Then they dove down and started going at me again. I could see the bites on my legs and knew I had been bitten on my butt - that one was the worst, but I couldn't see it. The bites really hurt."

Crystal insisted she doesn't know what sparked the attack but she suspects it could have been a mother otter protecting her young. She also expressed her relief that her young daughter was not in the water with her at the time, adding, "It would have been a lot worse."

She was treated for her injuries at the Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, California.

Crystal's experience follows a similar otter attack in Montana when a woman was bitten while surfing in the Jefferson River. It prompted officials at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department to issue a statement warning of the dangers of getting too close to otters.

They explained, "While attacks from otters are rare, otters can be protective of themselves and their young, especially at close distances. They give birth to their young in April and can later be seen with their young in the water during the summer. They may also be protective of food resources, especially when those resources are scarce."