Man-eating croc 'showed off' victim's body
A crocodile killed a 22-year-old man and then “showed off” his dead body in its jaws while his two friends watched in horror from a tree.
Shaun Blowers and Ashley McGough, both 19, recounted how the reptile snatched Brett Mann at Finniss River, which cuts through a flooded tropical wilderness about 50 miles southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory on Sunday.
Blowers said the 13-foot saltwater crocodile also lunged at them, sending them scrambling up a tree in the swollen stream. It stalked them throughout the night.
A police helicopter search party found them still in the tree 22 hours later and they were airlifted to safety.
The drama started after the three friends had been riding quad bikes along a muddy trail. They stopped by the river to bathe.
Mann was swept away by a strong current. As his friends swam out to help, he was attacked by the crocodile.
“We both jumped in and swam after him and we got in front of him and were leading him back to the bank,” Blowers said.
“I went past the croc. I didn’t see it. Ashley screamed out ‘croc, croc’… we just swam to the nearest tree and straight up we went.
“We were looking around for Brett but didn’t hear a thing, didn’t hear a scream, no splashing or anything,” he said.
“Two minutes later the croc brought Brett to the surface and pretty much showed him off to us and off he swam.
“Five minutes later he was back stalking the tree around us. He just hung around us all night and pretty much all the next morning.”
A police helicopter took the two survivors to Darwin where they were treated briefly for the effects of shock and exposure.
Authorities today searched the river for the remains of Mann, and for the man-eating crocodile.
Saltwater crocodiles are among the world’s largest reptiles. After almost being wiped out by hunters last century, they became a protected species in 1971. Numbers have come back to an estimated 100,000 and there have been growing calls for a reintroduction of limited hunting.
Authorities in some parts of tropical Australia warn tourists and residents not to swim in waterways that are known to be their habitat.
Last year a crocodile killed a 25-year-old German woman as she swam in a waterhole in the Northern Territories Kakadu Park after her tour guide allegedly told her it was safe to swim.
