Girl, 6, eaten by piranhas after canoe capsizes in Brazil

A six-year-old girl has been found dead in Brazil after being devoured by a large shoal of piranhas.

Adrila Muniz was with her grandmother and four other children in a canoe that capsized during a storm in the Maicuru River, near the town of Monte Alegre, on the afternoon of 27 January, BBC News reports.

While the other children were saved, piranhas set upon the girl, biting away her flesh.

"I tried to hold on to her, but with all the other children around she slipped out of my grasp," the grandmother reportedly told local media.

"I couldn't see her any more when we got to the bank."

Adrila died at the scene.

She reportedly lived in the municipality of Prainha and was visiting her grandparents on school holidays when she was taken out in the canoe.

Her body was taken to a local hospital morgue and graphic post-mortem photographs show that virtually all the flesh was stripped from her legs.

The body has since been released to family members for burial.