Australian police have found the remains of a young girl who was attacked by a crocodile while swimming.
The 12-year-old child disappeared on Tuesday evening at Mango Creek near Palumpa, a small settlement about seven hours’ drive southwest of the territory’s capital, Darwin.
Police and about 40 members of the local community, mainly Indigenous Australians, scoured vegetation and narrow waterways on foot, by boat and by helicopter. After 36 hours of searching, police said they had found remains “believed to be that of a missing 12-year-old child”.
“The recovery has been made. It was particularly gruesome and a sad, devastating outcome,” said Erica Gibson, a senior sergeant. Injuries confirmed a crocodile attack, Gibson said.
Efforts were being made to trap the crocodile, she added. Saltwater crocodiles are territorial and the killer is likely to remain in nearby waterways.
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“It’s a tragic incident for any parent or family member to lose a young child and especially in the circumstances like that, taken by a crocodile,” Brent Potter, Northern Territory police minister, told NT News.
Although deaths from Crocodile attacks are rare, they are not unheard of in Australia’s sparsely populated Northern Territory, which is home to an estimated 100,000 saltwater crocodiles — more than anywhere else in the world.
Crocodiles are considered a risk in most of the Northern Territory’s waterways. Saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years and grow throughout their lives — reaching up to seven meters in length.
The crocodile population has exploded across the country’s tropical north since they became a protected species under Australian law banning culling in the territory in 1971.
In the past year, there have been two other crocodile attacks in the territory. A nine-year-old boy was injured in January while swimming in Kakadu National Park. In November last year, a farmer fought off a crocodile by biting the predator.
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There have been calls to reintroduce culling. Last year Natasha Fyles, the Northern Territory’s chief minister, said that a conversation “needs to be had” about potentially reintroducing culling following an attack on a 67-year-old man at a popular swimming spot.
