Crocodile snatches man in front of 15 onlookers

A 24-year-old man was snatched by a crocodile in front of at least 15 onlookers as he swam across a northern Australian river with a friend. Police conducted a search for the man, but were unsuccessful.


The search was continuing Sunday, and the largest crocodile at the site had been shot and killed as precaution.

Northern Territory Police said the man was with a group celebrating a birthday at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, about 110 kilometers from Darwin, on Saturday when he decided to plunge into the water.

Reports suggested the men had ignored warnings not to swim in the river because of the risk of a crocodile attack.

"We tell people to stay away from the water, they obviously went against this (and) a man was taken," an employee of the resort, Erin Bayard, told News Corp Australia. " We say to everybody it's full of crocs. It's one of the most populated rivers in the Territory, every couple of kilometers there is a large croc."

"They were watching him swim across," senior sergeant Geoff Bahnert told AFP of the group. "And they just saw a crocodile with him in its jaws."

Saltwater crocodiles, with can grow up to seven meters long and weigh more than a tonne, are common feature of Australia's tropical north. They have been protected since the 1970s and their numbers have increased steadily since, along with the number of human encounters.

In December, a nine-year-old boy was taken by a four-meter crocodile while swimming in the Northern Territory, one month after a seven-year-old girl went missing while swimming, also in the north.