Crocodile kills fisherman in Palawan

MANILA, Philippines— A saltwater crocodile has killed a fisherman in  Bataraza town in Palawan and police said his left leg was bitten off while the other was almost severed.

The body of Edwin Lucero, 36, was found covered with bite marks and floating in a river in Rio Tuba village at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Bataraza police chief Senior Inspector Aldrico Nangit said.

“His right foot up to the knee was missing and his left foot was ripped off,” Nangit said. “Several wounds and teeth marks of the crocodile were seen on his body. It’s too tragic.”

Lucero, a resident of Rio Tuba village, went missing while collecting wood on a riverbank on Tuesday, with residents reporting hearing heavy splashing, said Nangit.

A search party saw the man’s corpse in the maw of the beast above the water at dawn Wednesday, he told reporters.

“The body was floating but apparently the crocodile was still biting its torso,” Nangit said. “They circled it with the motorboat and threw (torch) batteries and that is when it (the crocodile) submerged.”

The killer crocodile remains at large.

The area is known to harbor crocodiles, with a specimen about 16 feet long captured there after killing a man in the 1990s.

The saltwater crocodile is found throughout Asia, but the western island of Palawan, often called the Philippines’ last frontier, is one of the few places in the country where it survives, due to hunting and habitat loss elsewhere. With Agence France-Presse