Dead meat

Interaction with a crocodile is dangerous. Only its handler, with whom it is familiar, faces less risk of harm from the animal.

At the Kabug Mangrove Park and Wetlands Zoo in Zamboanga Sibugay, a tourist climbed over the fence of an enclosed pond to take a selfie with what he thought was a statue of a crocodile on 28 April, New York Post reports.

The 29-year-old man, however, was posing with the real thing and was attacked by the 15-foot-long reptile. An onlooker was able to video the terrifying scene on a smartphone.

The video showed the disturbed croc first locking its jaws on the intruder’s left arm before sinking its fangs on his thigh. It then rolled twice in an attempt to disable the victim.

The man withstood the death roll but was in so much pain. Police responded to the call for help from the victim’s brother but the two officers could not rescue the man.

Half an hour later, the croc’s handler arrived and freed the man by hitting the animal on the head with a cement block, which caused the croc to release its grip on the victim.

The man was rushed to a local hospital by his brother. Doctors bandaged his mangled leg and arm, GMA News reports.

Meanwhile, the crocodile-infested waters of the Hazara Canal in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, India was linked to the deaths of several taxi and truck drivers between 2002 and 2004, the Statesman reports.

“Sharma and his accomplices used to call drivers on fake trips, murder them, and sell their vehicles in the grey market,” Deputy Police Commissioner Aditya Gautam said, referring to a fugitive serial killer they arrested last week, according to The Statesman.

Davender Sharma, 67, was posing as a medicine doctor at a monastery in Dausa, Rajasthan when he was arrested. The convicted multiple murderer and human organ trader was notorious for dumping his victims’ bodies in the canal.

The crocodiles ate the bodies of Sharma’s victims to get rid of the evidence, but he was nevertheless convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to life imprisonment for other crimes.