Crocodile attacks diver
2005-09-29 13:51
Sydney - A 56-year-old diver on Thursday became the second person in less than a week to lose his life in a crocodile attack in the far north of Australia.
He was diving with a companion at Cape Don on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory when he was taken by a crocodile.
Police superintendent Dean McMaster said the man's injuries were consistent with a crocodile attack. His body is to be flown to Darwin for a post-mortem.
The alarm was raised mid-morning after the man failed to surface. His companion reported seeing a large crocodile nearby.
The suspected death comes just days after a 4m crocodile took a British snorkeller on Groote Eylandt, also in the Northern Territory. Russell Harris, a 37-year-old British mining engineer, was killed on Saturday.
Crocodiles have been a protected species in Australia since being hunted to near-extinction in the 1970s. Their numbers have grown so rapidly in northern Australia that a campaign is under way to set an annual quota and allow trophy hunters to pay top dollar to shoot them. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA