A 67-year-old man was bitten by a crocodile at a popular swimming hole in the Northern Territory of Australia on Monday, sending other swimmers fleeing from the water.
The incident occurred at about 11:30 a.m. at Wangi Falls, according to 7News and Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his back and arm and was in stable condition at the Royal Darwin Hospital.
A witness told ABC the man was swimming near the falls when the crocodile appeared on the surface of the water, and “everyone was yelling, ‘Croc, croc!’”
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Will Johanson was swimming with his 5-year-old son when the incident occurred.
“Suddenly we turned around and everyone was all out of the water and pointing in our direction, and sure enough there was a croc swimming nearby,” Johanson told ABC.
“We were sort of stuck on the other side of the waterhole, probably me and half a dozen other people, and my 5-year-old son.”
Johanson said they waited for five minutes for a chance to sneak around the edge of the swimming hole to safety.
Joel and Meghan Bennett were forced to cling to rocks near the falls before being rescued by boat.
“Meghan and myself were blissfully enjoying a swim near the base of the falls, totally unaware that we were sharing the swim with a 2-meter [6.5-foot] saltwater crocodile that had somehow gotten past the croc fences and traps,” Joel Bennett wrote on Facebook.
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“Above the roar of the falls I heard a heap of yelling to turn around and see a decent size croc heading straight for us. After a quick dash to the rocks where Meghan was, and getting ourselves up on a ledge, it circled around the pool for a while then swam off down a creek.
“We found out after that it had already bitten someone and left some wounds on his arm and back…Thanks to the South African tourists who after the removal of some barriers and hand rails got their boat over to us!”
One witness told 7News “the croc had followed them and they had to rush onto the rocks. Everyone else had fled from the water.”
7News reported as many as 80 swimmers fleeing the water.
One of the witnesses who helped the bitten man to safety was a Tasmanian police officer, Taneka Starr.
“We formed a circle together to make sure we all made it out of the water safely as a group, especially the children,” Starr told ABC. “We then saw that a man had suffered injuries to his arm and together my sisters and I provided first aid.”
The popular swimming hole had reopened June 17 after officials surveyed and cleared the area of any creatures. Officials have reclosed the site for safety reasons.
Generic photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
