A devastating crocodile attack in eastern Indonesia has resulted in the death of 54-year-old Halima Rahakbauw, who was bathing in a river in Wali village on the Maluku islands.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning, and her body parts were later recovered from the slaughtered animal.
After Rahakbauw failed to return home, relatives and friends initiated a search, which led to the discovery of a sandal and body parts in the river. The villagers reported the incident to the police, who subsequently killed the crocodile. To retrieve the victim’s remains, the villagers had to cut open the crocodile’s belly.
The crocodile, estimated to be around four meters (12 feet) long, was killed by the police. However, neither the authorities nor the villagers could identify the species of the reptile.
This incident is the latest in a series of crocodile attacks in Indonesia. On Sunday, a 63-year-old tin miner was killed by a crocodile near a river on Bangka island in Sumatra. In 2018, a mob in Papua butchered nearly 300 crocodiles in revenge after a local man was killed by one of the reptiles. In 2019, a scientist was dragged into a crocodile enclosure and killed on the island of Sulawesi.
Indonesia is home to several species of crocodiles that regularly attack and kill humans, making it a country with a significant risk of crocodile attacks.
