An Australian backpacker's daring New Year's Eve bungee jump into an African river went spectacularly awry when the rope snapped, plunging the 22-year-old student head-first into swirling rapids.

Erin Langworthy survived the plunge although there were frightening moments when she first slammed into the water near Victoria Falls.

"It went black straight away and I felt like I had been slapped all over," Langworthy told Australia's Channel 9 News.

Video of the accident shows Langworthy standing on a bridge deck high above the Zambezi River preparing for the bungee jump. Seconds after she swan-dives off the bridge, the cord snaps.

Langworthy is seen hitting the water while the rope dangles.

In the water, Langworthy was pulled downstream, her feet still tied by rope.

"I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever is was caught into."

She was rescued on the Zimbabwe side of the river and initially treated there.

"When I was first brought out of the water, they put me on my back and so all the water I had inhaled meant that I couldn't breathe," she said. So I made them roll me on to my side and that's when I started coughing up water and blood."

Doctors were amazed she wasn't more seriously hurt. Langworthy paid $130 for the bungee jump that could have cost her life.

It's estimated that 50,000 people each year pay to bungee jump into the river that lies between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The operator said it's the first bungee accident at the popular tourist spot. He said he's since replaced the broken equipment

Langworthy, of Perth, seemed shocked she wasn't harmed.

"I think it is definitely a miracle that I survived," she said.