AFP – An Australian fisherman was likely killed by a crocodile after tumbling down a riverbank into a creek, police said Tuesday after finding human remains in the gut of a 4.9-metre reptile caught nearby.
The 40-year-old man was fishing on a riverbank in tropical north Queensland when he “fell into the water and failed to resurface”, police said in a statement.
They were told the man had “been taken by a crocodile”.
The fisherman had been casting his line at a secluded spot known among locals as “crocodile bend”, Australian media reported.
Rangers trapped and killed a large crocodile close to where the fisherman had plunged into the water.
Police said they believed they had found the man’s remains inside the beast, and were now working on a formal identification.
A 12-year-old girl was killed by a crocodile in July while swimming near a remote settlement in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Deadly crocodile attacks are rare but not unheard of in Australia’s northern tropics.
Earlier this year, a saltwater crocodile was shot, cooked and eaten after menacing a Northern Territory community.
