8-Year-Old Indonesian Boy Missing After Swimming on Borneo Island... Crocodile's Belly Cut Open

Frequent Incidents of Being Dragged by Crocodiles on Borneo Island

An 8-year-old boy who went missing while swimming on Borneo Island was found inside a crocodile's stomach.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] An 8-year-old boy who went missing in a river in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island was found inside a crocodile's stomach.

According to the daily Kompas on the 5th, an 8-year-old child who was swimming in a river in Muara Bengkalo village, East Kalimantan, Borneo Island, went missing on the 3rd.

The boy's father and older brother, who were fishing, saw a crocodile dragging the child into the water but could only thrash their feet helplessly.

After receiving the report, the search authorities deployed a crocodile trainer to thoroughly search the riverbank where the child disappeared.

On the second day of the disappearance, the 4th, they found a crocodile about 100 meters from where the child went missing and fired a tranquilizer dart.

The search team pulled the tranquilized crocodile to the riverbank and cut open its stomach to retrieve the child's body.

The search team leader said, "The body found inside the crocodile's stomach was intact," and added, "It is presumed that the crocodile swallowed the child whole."

The boy's body was handed over to his family, who plan to hold a funeral. The crocodile that was cut open was also buried.

On Borneo Island, incidents where crocodiles drag not only children but also adults into the water occur frequently.

At the end of July last year, a 14-year-old boy went missing while catching snails by the riverbank in a village in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, and five days later, parts of the boy's body were found inside a giant crocodile's stomach.

In March last year, in the same village, a 78-year-old man was dragged away by a 4.5-meter crocodile and was found inside the crocodile the next day after it was caught.