A 54-year-old woman was fatally attacked by a crocodile while bathing in a river on the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, local authorities and residents reported on Wednesday.
The victim, identified as Halima Rahakbauw, had spent the morning collecting clams before deciding to take a swim in the river near Wali village.
According to the AFP, neighbors said when Rahakbauw did not return home, her family and friends initiated a search.
“Her sandal and a part of her body were found in the river,” said Rustam Ilyas, a neighbor. “That’s when we knew something terrible had happened.”
Villagers alerted the police, who later killed the crocodile responsible for the attack. A local police officer, who asked not to be named, explained, “The villagers had to open the crocodile’s stomach to retrieve some of the victim’s body parts.”
The crocodile, estimated to be around four meters (12 feet) long, was not identified by species. Indonesia is known for its diverse crocodile population, some of which are notorious for attacking humans.
This tragic incident follows another fatal crocodile attack just days earlier, when a 63-year-old tin miner was killed near a river on Bangka Island in Sumatra.
Crocodile attacks in Indonesia have been a recurring issue, leading to violent reprisals from local communities. In 2018, nearly 300 crocodiles were killed by a mob in Papua after a local man was fatally attacked by one of the reptiles. A year later, a scientist was dragged into an enclosure and killed by a captive crocodile on the island of Sulawesi.
