Australian crocodile took girl, say police

Source: Agencies | March 17, 2009, Tuesday |

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POLICE said they found human remains yesterday in an Australian swamp where a crocodile snatched an 11-year-old girl.

The remains would undergo DNA testing to determine whether they belong to the girl who vanished on Sunday while swimming with three children in a swamp on the outskirts of the northern city of Darwin, Northern Territory Police Superintendent Michael Murphy said.

Police said the find "strongly indicates she has died from a crocodile attack."

If confirmed, it would be the second fatal crocodile attack in northern Australia in five weeks.

Murphy declined to give details on the remains, which were found in water 450 meters from where the girl was last seen, he said.

The three children who had been swimming with the girl, including her younger sister, told police that they saw the head and tail of a crocodile "splash the surface" of the water near where she vanished moments earlier, Murphy said.

A search of the swamp on Sunday and yesterday failed to find the crocodile.

The swamp is not far from crocodile-infested flood plains, but local Michael Dobrovitch said he swims there regularly.

"I get in, I get out quick, but I always have somebody with me" to watch for crocodiles, Dobrovitch told the Australian Broadcasting Co.

A 5-year-old boy vanished from a river edge in northeastern Australia on February 8, and officials later confirmed an attack when his remains were found in the stomach of a 4.5-meter crocodile.

Last September, a 62-year-old man was killed by a crocodile in another northeastern river while checking crab pots.

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Australian crocodile took girl, say police

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