A 66-year-old man was eaten alive by a crocodile when he went fishing in a river near his house at Kampung Reban in Asajaya

Man who went fishing eaten alive by crocodile
By NG AI FERN
aifern@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: A 66-year-old man was eaten alive by a crocodile when he went fishing in a river near his house at Kampung Reban in Asajaya, some 60km from here.

Villagers saw the lower half of Sidi Samat’s body dangling from the mouth of a 20m-long crocodile resting in the middle of the Batang Samarahan river at around 10.30am yesterday.

However, a hastily assembled search and rescue team comprising six villagers using a longboat and equipped with a shotgun, failed to locate the crocodile.

“He went fishing by the river at around 6.30am. He normally returns home in less than an hour, but when he did not come back after 8am, I called for help to look for him,” Sidi’s wife, Dayang Sara Awang Shahrut, 60, told reporters at her house yesterday in front of the river where the incident took place.

Relatives and villagers who went to the river to look for Sidi soon after Dayang Sara called for help, were shocked to see his body inside the crocodile’s mouth.

“We saw a huge crocodile in the middle of the river. I saw Sidi’s legs inside the mouth of the crocodile. But it was too far. We could not reach him,” said Ismail Awang Uding, who then informed the police and Bomba.

“I prayed and talked to the crocodile, asking it to come ashore. It came to the shore, but before we could do anything, it immersed itself in the river,” Ismail said.

According to the villagers, crocodiles are a common sight there but they never came up the banks and the villagers always avoided them.

Villagers said it has been more than 10 years since the last crocodile attack.

Sidi has three sons and three daughters ranging from 23 to 40 years old

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