Man killed by crocodile in Australian wilderness

A crocodile killed a man as he tried to cross a flooded river in the northern Australian wilderness.

Police said the 47-year-old man was wading through the East Alligator River in the Northern Territory with two women when he disappeared near the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

The women made the crossing safely then reported the man missing.

Police and rangers found his body downstream late yesterday near an 11ft crocodile.

The crocodile was shot dead and the man’s body was taken to the city of Darwin for a post-mortem.

Since crocodiles became a protected species under federal law in 1971, numbers in the Northern Territory have exploded from 3,000 to an estimated 80,000 to 100,000.