Australian police said Wednesday they are searching for a 12-year-old girl who disappeared while swimming in a crocodile-infested stream in a remote Aboriginal community in the north of the country.
The girl was last seen swimming in Mango Creek in the Nganmarriyanga community, formerly known as Palumpa and located regarding 357 kilometres southwest of the Australian city of Darwin, according to a statement released today by the Northern Territory Police.
“According to initial reports, the girl had been attacked by a crocodile,” said the Northern Territory Police, whose capital is Darwin, adding that search and rescue teams have not yet found the girl.
Estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), like sharks, are two feared animals known for their sporadic attacks on humans, some of them fatal.
Estuarine crocodiles in Australia, animals that can measure up to six metres, are abundant in the tropical region of northern Australia following being declared a protected species in 1971 when there were regarding 3,000 wild specimens due to indiscriminate hunting of this reptile.
These protective measures have enabled the estuarine crocodile population in the Northern Territory to recover to around 100,000 in the current decade.
With information from EFE
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2024-07-04 08:55:07
