PONTIANAK (Indonesia), Feb 20 — A boy is missing on Indonesia’s Borneo island after he was attacked by a crocodile, police said today, the second such attack in the area in two weeks.
Indonesia is home to several species of crocodiles that regularly attack and kill humans.
The 10-year-old boy jumped into a river in West Kalimantan province on Borneo, one of the world’s most biodiverse islands, on Tuesday, when a four-metre-long crocodile attacked him, according to a friend.
“His friend witnessed the crocodile resurface, maul the victim’s body and drag it into the current,” local police chief Rachmatul Isani Fachri said in a statement.
The friend alerted the boy’s father, who searched for his son’s body in the river using a speedboat, but he remains missing.
“Currently the search and rescue team and local people are still searching for the victim. Please pray so he will be found soon,” Rachmatul said.
Another boy went missing in the same village after a crocodile attacked him while bathing, according to his uncle who witnessed the attack, police said on February 7.
The search for six-year-old Cristian Ricardo ended after seven days and he is now presumed dead.
Borneo is split between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia and is home to vast tracts of jungle hosting a wide variety of rare animals, including saltwater crocodiles.
A crocodile attacked and killed a woman in December as she worked on a palm oil plantation in the same province of Borneo, with her body later recovered.
In August, a crocodile killed a 54-year-old woman as she bathed in a river on Indonesia’s Maluku islands. — AFP
