A search is under way for a 62-year-old man who was taken by a saltwater crocodile in Kakadu national park in the Northern Territory.
Police said the man was in a boat when he was attacked on the South Alligator River, about a two-hour drive south-west of Cooinda, on Saturday afternoon.
"We always hold out hope, but obviously a crocodile attack is very serious and there are grave concerns," Superintendent Bob Harrison told the ABC.
It is believed the man's wife, son and daughter-in-law were with him at the time. The man has not yet been named. The NT News newspaper reported that the family is understood to be from the NT capital, Darwin.
"I believe the son was involved in the initial search for his father, which is obviously traumatising and anyone's heart would go out to the family in that sort of incident," Harrison said.
Police and rangers are searching for the man and the crocodile.
"At this time we have eight people down there and we'll be ramping that up if we don't locate the gentleman during the night," Harrison said.
The Northern Territory's minister for parks and wildlife, Bess Price, told NT News that her thoughts were with the missing man's family and friends.
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/08/man-52-missing-after-being-taken-by-a-crocodile-in-kakadu
