A five-year-old girl had a lucky escape in northern Australia when she was bitten by a saltwater crocodile while swimming in shallow waters yesterday.
The child had her leg cut open by the 2m (6.5 foot)-long reptile, which left bite marks in her thigh while she was swimming at Caledon Bay in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal reserve in the remote northeastern corner of the Northern Territory.
Police said that they were not sure whether the crocodile had attacked the girl or if she had accidentally disturbed the animal which cut her as it was trying to get away.
Police Superintendent Craig Ryan said the crocodile’s claws gouged the girl’s leg and slashed her leg open. He said she was lucky to be alive.
“Any crocodile attack that you survive, you have to count your blessings,” he told the Northern Territory News. “The girl was extremely lucky that she only received a minor injury. Any croc attack has the potential to be fatal.”
Last week a 45-year-old professional fisherman was bitten several times in the head and shoulder by a saltwater crocodile while diving for trepang (sea cucumbers) in Port Essington, 120 miles northeast of Darwin. The man was rescued by his fellow divers and taken to hospital where he was treated for his injuries.
In March last year 11-year-old Briony Goodsell was fatally attacked by a crocodile while swimming in Black Jungle Swamp, a restricted area inside a crocodile-infested conservation reserve near Lambells Lagoon, a rural town 30 miles east of Darwin.
A coronial inquest into Briony’s death was expected to begin in a Darwin court today.
Crocodiles are commonly found throughout the Northern Territory, where an estimated 80,000 of the reptiles live in Top End waterways. Each year more than 200 crocodiles are caught by government rangers in traps placed around Darwin and its harbour.
There have been four fatal crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory and Queensland since September, 2008. The recent spate of attacks led to a proposal for a crocodile management plan which included trophy-hunting safaris and the widespread culling of the animals and a “croc-free zone” to be put in place around Darwin.
The plan, which was approved by the Commonwealth government in October, rejected safaris but increased the number of eggs and animals that can be harvested for farming, food and export.
The management plan has been supported by Briony’s mother, Charlene O’Sullivan, who said she hopes this week’s coronial inquest will prompt changes to crocodile management policies.