Overview

• The 80-year-old man entered the shallow water after cutting grass on his riverbank property and left his clothes by the bank before the attack.
• A local witness observed a crocodile behaving suspiciously in the water and noted its return an hour later carrying the man’s body in its jaws.
• Villagers pelted the reptile with stones to force it to release its prey, but the victim was already dead when his body was found roughly 200 meters downstream.
• Authorities have issued extreme caution advisories along the Way Semaka River, highlighting its role as a common habitat for large saltwater crocodiles.
• Indonesia recorded 1,167 crocodile attacks and 556 fatalities between 2015 and 2024, making it the global hotspot for human–crocodile incidents, according to CrocAttack.