Fisherman rescued from 10-minute long crocodile attack

A fisherman was rescued by his friend from a 10-minute long crocodile attack in Indonesia.

Irfan Rotinga was fishing for dinner at the Simangalam River in North Sumatra when the huge river reptile leapt out of the water and attacked him on September 11 afternoon.

His friend, Irna, who was fishing 33 feet away, heard the man screaming for help with only his head visible above the water.

He said: 'The crocodile tried to do its death spin several times while we were in the water. Luckily, I was holding his jacket. If I had been holding his hand, it would have snapped off from the crocodile's strength.'

The tense tug-of-war lasted for 10 minutes before a passing motorboat arrived and rammed the crocodile in the head, loosening its grip on Irfan's leg.

Footage shows his mangled and bloody limb after being torn by the vicious animal. He was rushed to the 3 Brothers Hospital in North Labuhan Batu Regency for treatment.

In 2020, a farmer named Ponidi, 47, and a fisherman, Arpan Munthe, 43, were mauled by crocodiles in the same river.

The Indonesian archipelago is home to 14 types of crocs - with a large population of extremely large and violent estuarine crocodiles that flourish in the region's climate.

Conservationists believe that crocodiles have been driven further inland closer to villages due to overfishing reducing the crocodiles' natural food supplies combined with habitat loss from the development of coastal areas into farms.

With uneducated locals in the developing country still using rivers for bathing and primitive fishing, the deadly combination of factors has led to rising numbers of crocodile attacks.

On August 20, grandmother Halima Rahakbauw, 54, was dismembered by a crocodile while washing pots in the Wali River in Maluku, Indonesia.

While on August 29, villager M Yunus, 68, was torn in half in a croc attack while bathing in the Peureulak River in Aceh province.