A heroic 11-year-old girl has saved a teenager in trouble in the water off Williamstown Beach.

Layla Pretorius was playing in the sand at Williamstown on Tuesday when she heard a mother screaming.

Her son had fallen from his kayak, and couldn’t get back in.

Layla, who has been a nipper since she was five, sprung into action.

“I paddled out there and I told him to hold on to the strap on my board and he kicked, and I paddled,” she told Neil Mitchell.

The young hero says she wasn’t worried about the rescue.

“It wasn’t scary for me,” she said.

“I knew what to do.”

Layla says she thinks she saved the boy’s life, and rescuing someone feels “amazing”.

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