More Dutch holidaymakers have reported injuries from close encounters with wildlife this year, emergency help organisation VHD has said.

The organisation, which liaises with several big insurers in case of problems in the Netherlands or abroad, said the number of reports ran into “dozens” compared to earlier years when they were few and far between.

One holidaymaker was seriously injured by a crocodile, while others had been bitten or scratched by a bat and needed urgent help to head off the risk of rabies. The organisation does not give out more details of incidents or precise figures because of privacy rules.

The most frequent reports concerned bites by aggressive fish in the Mediterranean, particularly the sea bass.

“It may sound funny at first but it really isn’t,” Tamara Voskamp of VHD told the AD. “We had several reports of people who needed stitches after an attack because a sea bass had taken bites out of their legs.”

Most reports came from France and Spain. “The higher water temperatures are making some fish more aggressive,” she said.

Spanish media are including saddled sea bream among the culprits, saying some 15 people a day had to be treated by the local emergency posts on the beaches around the resort of Benidorm.

The fish mainly targetted elderly swimmers with moles, warts and small lesions to the skin. People wearing shiny jewellery were also in the fish’s sights.

The bite of a sea bream is painful but will not usually have serious consequences. “No one had to be repatriated,” Voskamp said.