Australian police yesterday were hunting a four-metre crocodile that killed a man in a remote river in the Northern Territory.
Brett Mann, 22, was snatched by the killer croc after he and two friends, Shaun Blowers and Ashley McGough, both 19, were swept into the fast-flowing Finniss River, 70km south of Darwin.
The three men had been riding quad bikes in the surrounding scrub on Sunday and had stopped at the river to wash off the mud caking their bodies. When Mann lost his footing and began to be pulled downstream, his friends leapt into the water to try to rescue him. They drifted about a kilometre before noticing a large saltwater crocodile swimming towards them.
Mr McGough screamed out 'croc, croc'.
'We just swam to the nearest tree and straight up we went,' Mr Blowers said. 'We were looking around for Brett but didn't hear a thing, no splashing or anything. Two minutes later the croc brought Brett to the surface and pretty much showed him off to us.'
Mann's body, which was clamped between the crocodile's jaws, has yet to be recovered. The two terrified survivors spent more than 22 hours clinging to the tree as the crocodile repeatedly circled them.
They were rescued in torrential rain and low visibility late on Monday by two police officers winched from a helicopter.