The remains of a 12-year-old girl have been found in Australia after an apparent crocodile attack. Police said the girl’s remains were discovered in a river system near where she went missing two days earlier in the Northern Territory’s Indigenous community of Palumpa, according to The Associated Press. Northern Territory Police confirmed that the injuries on the girl’s body were consistent with a crocodile attack, adding that her remains were found after an “extensive search effort.”
“The recovery has been made. It was particularly gruesome and a sad, devastating outcome,” Senior Sergeant Erica Gibson said. “It was an extremely difficult, essentially 36 hours… For the family, it is the most devastating outcome possible for them. They are in a state of extreme shock and disbelief.”
In a statement shared on the Facebook page for the Northern Territory’s emergency services, Gibson said officers were providing support to the family and the local community. Gibson was quoted by the AP as saying officials were still trying to locate the crocodile to trap the animal, as the territorial creatures often remain in and around the same area.
“We live in a place where crocodiles occupy our water places,” Northern Territory Police Minister Brent Potter said, according to CBS News partner network BBC News. “It’s just a reminder to stay out of the water as best we can.” According to the Northern Territory’s tourism site, the region is home to the world’s largest wild crocodile population, with more than 100,000 freshwater and saltwater predators. The latter can grow up to 20 feet long. “The more common and more dangerous species is the saltwater crocodile,” the tourism website says. “These ‘salties’ side along the coastline and waterways of the Territory. They have a taste for fish, but will eat just about anything including cows and buffaloes, wild boar, turtles, birds, and crabs.”
The incident occurred in a remote town called Palumpa in Australia. The remains of a missing 12-year-old girl in Australia have been found after she was attacked and taken by a crocodile while swimming in a creek, police said. The incident took place on Tuesday evening at about 5:30 p.m. local time in the remote community of Palumpa — approximately a seven-hour drive southwest of Darwin with a population of about 400 people — in Australia’s Northern Territory, according to the Northern Territory Police, Fire & Emergency services in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Around 5:30 pm last night, police received reports of a missing 12-year-old child who was last seen swimming at Mango Creek,” authorities said. “Initial reports stated the child had been attacked by a crocodile. Community members and Peppimenarti Police attended the scene and began searching for the child, who has yet to be located.” A search and rescue team was immediately deployed into the area with officers from Wadeye assisting but, several hours later, the remains of the 12-year-old girl were found, according to a statement released by the Northern Territory Police.
“Northern Territory Police have located remains near Palumpa believed to be that of a missing 12-year-old child,” authorities said. “The child was reportedly attacked by a crocodile in Mango Creek on Tuesday 2 July 2024. An extensive search effort was mounted in an effort to locate the child. Senior Sergeant Erica Gibson said ‘this is devastating news for the family, the community, and everyone involved in the search. Police are providing support to the family and community, along with the first responders who attended the scene.'”
The Northern Territory is home to the world’s largest wild crocodile population, with more than 100,000 of the predators in the wild, according to Australia’s Northern Territory tourism website. “If you’ve ever wanted to see a crocodile in the wild, the NT is the best place in the world to do it,” the page reads. While the crocodiles can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 1 ton (2,000 pounds), attacks on humans are very rare, though officials warn to steer clear of them. “They have a taste for fish, but will eat just about anything including cows and buffaloes, wild boar, turtles, birds, and crabs,” according to the NT’s tourism website. “Don’t attempt to feed any wild crocodiles during your stay, and don’t swim in any waterway or camp, fish or walk in any area where crocodile hazard signs are posted. The best way to avoid getting hurt is to avoid crocodiles in the wild altogether.”
The body of a missing 12-year-old girl feared attacked by a crocodile has been discovered by police. The girl was reported missing on Tuesday evening local time, after swimming in a river named Mango Creek in Australia’s Northern Territory, some 220 miles southwest of the city of Darwin. The girl’s remains showed injuries consistent with a crocodile attack, police confirmed to local media.
“It was particularly gruesome and a sad and devastating outcome,” Northern Territory Police Senior Sergeant Erica Gibson told ABC. “For the family, it is the most devastating outcome possible for them. They are in a state of extreme shock and disbelief.” The girl’s body was found on the banks of the creek on Thursday morning. Her T-shirt had been discovered late the previous evening. A black crocodile had been seen around the same time that the girl and her family were swimming in the river.
The incident occurred only a few miles from the remote Aboriginal community of Nganmarriyanga. Local police were assisted by 30 to 40 members of the local community in their search for the missing girl along the riverbanks, along with boats, and a helicopter also searching for any sign of her from the air. “It was an extremely difficult 36 hours for the first responders involved in the search,” Gibson said.
The Northern Territory is home to around 100,000 crocodiles, making up half of the 200,000 crocodiles found across Australia. The territory is home to both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles, but saltwater crocs are by far the most dangerous, due to their immense size. Males can grow up to 23 feet in length, with some rare individuals exceeding that size. They can live in both saltwater and freshwater, and are found in rivers, estuaries, swamps, and coastal areas across northern and eastern Australia, as well as southeast Asia, south Asia, and many Pacific Islands. Around 1,000 people are thought to be killed by saltwater crocodiles worldwide each year. Saltwater crocodile attacks on humans are relatively rare in Australia, with around one to two fatalities per year, according to data released by the Australian government in 2017.
The death of the girl marks the first time since 2018 that there has been a fatal crocodile attack in the Northern Territories, although a teenage boy was killed by a crocodile in Queensland earlier this year. There have been other attacks in the Northern Territory of late, however, with a 9-year-old boy being left in critical condition in January after an encounter with a crocodile. Local police hope to capture the crocodile who attacked the young girl, setting crocodile traps along the waterway. “It is a salient reminder to everyone that waterways in the territory could always have crocodiles in them,” Gibson said.
Australian police have found human remains while searching for a 12-year-old they believe was the victim of a crocodile attack. The child was last seen on Tuesday, swimming with family near the remote Aboriginal town of Nganmarriyanga – about a seven-hour drive southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT). “This is devastating news for the family, the community, and everyone involved in the search,” said Senior Sgt Erica Gibson, adding that police would provide support to everyone impacted. Earlier Sgt Gibson had told ABC News that a black crocodile had been seen in the immediate area.
As many as 40 members of the community helped police officers in their search for the child, which started shortly after the 12-year-old was reported missing. They scoured the area by foot, by boat, and with the use of helicopters, covering challenging terrain with thick vegetation and a narrow, winding waterway. No details were given on whether the crocodile suspected to have attacked the child had been found. Earlier on Wednesday NT Police Minister Brent Potter said wildlife officers had been authorized to “remove” the crocodile from the area once it was located and reiterated the government’s safety message. “We live in a place where crocodiles occupy our water places… it’s just a reminder to stay out of the water as best we can.”
Found all around the northern edges of Australia – from Broome in Western Australia to Gladstone in Queensland – saltwater crocodiles were hunted to near extinction but numbers have bounced back since the practice was banned in the 1970s. The NT is now home to an estimated 100,000 saltwater crocodiles, more than anywhere else in the world. Attacks though are uncommon. There have been at least two other crocodile attacks in the NT in the past year – a nine-year-old boy was injured in January while swimming in Kakadu National Park, and a farmer escaped a beast’s jaws by biting it back in October – but there has not been a fatal attack there since 2018. Queensland, however, has had a series of deadly attacks in recent years, including a 16-year-old boy who was killed in the Torres Strait in April.
The remains of a missing 12-year-old Australian girl believed to be the victim of a crocodile attack were found Thursday, authorities confirmed. A police official said the girl’s T-shirt was discovered Wednesday upstream at about 6:15 p.m. local time and her remains found Thursday morning in a Northern Territory waterway. “It was particularly gruesome and a sad and devastating outcome,” NT Police Senior Sgt. Erica Gibson told Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Palumpa. Although attacks are not common for that part of the country, the unnamed young girl was last seen Tuesday local time in Australia’s Northern Territory — home to more saltwater crocodiles than anyplace else on Earth at an estimated 100,000. She was swimming with family members at Mango Creek, in Palumpa, during a bush holiday near the remote Aboriginal town Nganmarriyanga, which is roughly a seven-hour drive southwest of Darwin in one of the northernmost parts of Australia.
Gibson did confirm the young girl’s injuries were consistent with a crocodile attack. “It was an extremely difficult 36 hours for the first responders involved in the search,” she stated, adding how the grieved family are “in a state of extreme shock and disbelief.” The girl’s disappearance was reported to Australian police at 5.30 p.m. local time on Tuesday. A black crocodile was seen in the area, according to witnesses. But no details were given if the suspected reptile had otherwise been identified or located. About 40 members of the public reportedly assisted 10 police officers with a foot, boat, and aerial search along the “narrow, but long and winding” Mango Creek river banks. This is now the first fatal attack in the NT since 2018, according to reports.
While Queensland has had a number of reportedly deadly crocodile attacks in recent years, there were at least two reported crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory in the last year. A leading Australian crocodile researcher suggested a good response by the territorial government would be to fund local Indigenous groups in remote communities like the one where the girl was allegedly taken victim by the reptile in question. Meanwhile, the territory’s chief minister says there is “always more to be done around croc safety” as she said the Northern Territory’s latest budget lists $500,000 for crocodile management efforts. “We can’t have the crocodile population outnumber the human population in the Northern Territory,” Chief Minister Eva Lawler said. “We do need to keep our crocodile numbers under control.”
Source: CBS News, BBC News, The Associated Press, ABC News, UPI
