Crocodile Swallows 8-Year-Old Boy, Body Pulled Out Of Reptile's Stomach

In a horrific incident, an 8-year-old boy was swallowed by a crocodile as he swam in a river in Indonesia.

The child went to the river on the island of Borneo along with his younger brother. A local search and rescue agency official, identified as Oktavianto, said the children's father was nearby when the attack took place Wednesday, according to 7News. The boy's father jumped to rescue his child when he saw the crocodile, but it escaped.

“He chased the crocodile and hit it with bare hands but he couldn’t keep up,” Oktavianto said.

On Thursday, people in the area caught the massive crocodile and killed it. They cut the reptile's stomach and pulled out the boy's body. According to 7News, the victim's family watched as the reptile was cut open and the child's body was found intact inside it.

Oktavianto said the river was known to be a crocodile habitat, but locals often went there "to bathe and get water for cooking," 7News reported.

In a similar incident last year in December, an 8-year-old boy was mauled to death by a crocodile in Malaysia. The child was swimming in a river with his friend when the crocodile got close to the child and dragged him underwater. The police said at the time the victim's friend swam to the shore and informed the child's father. A search was conducted, and the victim's body was found hours later. “There were severe injuries on the boy’s body including his waist, chest and stomach,” Rohan Ahmad, a senior police officer, said.

In another incident, the remains of a 14-year-old boy was found inside the stomach of a crocodile in Tanjung Manis, Malaysia, in July 2020. The police filed a missing complaint after the boy's aunt said she saw an alligator attacking the teenager. A search was conducted and villagers captured the crocodile using a chicken as bait. The crocodile's body was cut open in front of the teen’s family and the police. "Some cloth and several human body parts were found in the crocodile’s stomach," Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department assistant director (operations) Tiong Ling Hii said at the time.