Crocodile kills woman while bathing in a river in eastern Indonesia

A crocodile has killed a woman who was bathing in a river in eastern Indonesia, police and locals said on Wednesday. Villagers later recovered parts of the slaughtered animal's body.

Halima Rahakbauw, 54, was swimming in a river in the village of Wali in the Moluccas after searching for mussels on Tuesday morning when the reptile struck.

Rahakbauw's neighbor Rustam Ilyas said relatives and friends began searching when she did not return home.

After discovering a sandal and a body part in the river, the villagers reported the incident to the police, who killed the reptile.

“Villagers had to cut open the crocodile's belly to remove some parts of the victim's body,” a local police official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, told AFP on Wednesday.

“The crocodile was quite big, about four meters long,” neighbor Ilyas told AFP.

Neither the police nor the villagers could identify the species.

The deadly attack occurred just days after police said human remains were found in a big crocodile suspected of killing a tourist in Australia.

There are several species of crocodiles in Indonesia that regularly attack humans.

On Sunday, a 63-year-old tin miner was killed by a crocodile near a river on the island of Bangka in Sumatra.

In 2018, a mob in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost region, slaughtered nearly 300 crocodiles in revenge after a local man was killed by one of the reptiles.

In 2019, a scientist on the island of Sulawesi was dragged into his enclosure and killed by a giant captured crocodile.

Tuesday's deadly crocodile attack follows a series of fatal python attacks in the country. Last week Woman was found dead by her daughter after she was attacked by a python in central Indonesia.

In July, a woman found dead in the belly of a snake after it completely swallowed them in the village of Siteba in South Sulawesi province.

In June Woman was found dead in the belly of a reticulated python in another district of South Sulawesi.