Search party finds missing fisherman's head in crocodile's stomach

A search party looking for a missing fisherman were horrified to find the man’s head in the stomach of a crocodile.

The 68-year-old, who has only been identified as Yasmin, went fishing in a river in the Rokan Hilir Regency of Riau province of Indonesia on Thursday but didn’t return home.

Locals launched a search party, visiting the areas they knew Yasmin often fished at, and his son Sunardi found his dad’s clothes and a fishing rod left near the riverbank.

The search continued overnight until loud splashing was heard in the early hours of Friday morning, around 650ft away from where Yasmin’s belongings were discovered.

Checking out the noise at the Bekoan Ditch in Teluk Nilap village, they found a huge crocodile with dismembered body parts hanging from its jaws.

Locals used electrical generators to kill the crocodile before cutting it open, where they found Yasmin’s head and what appeared to be an arm in its stomach.

Isa Imam Syahroni, Rokan Hilir Police Chief, said: ‘The body was no longer intact when it was collected. His head was severed from his body.

‘The family has accepted his passing and refused a post-mortem exam because it is clear how he died.’

Just a day earlier, the body of a missing angler eaten by a crocodile was found in the same province.

Andika Saputra, 21, was found half-eaten after being dragged into the Cantik River by a crocodile.

He had been searching for snails to eat along the banks when the beast snapped him up and devoured him on September 15.

Indonesia is home to 14 crocodile species, with a large population of extremely large and violent estuarine crocodiles that flourish in the region’s climate.

Conservationists believe that crocodiles have been driven further inland closer to villages due to overfishing reducing the crocodiles’ natural food supplies combined with habitat loss from the development of coastal areas into farms.

With uneducated locals in the developing country still using rivers for bathing and primitive fishing, the deadly combination of factors has led to rising numbers of crocodile attacks.