Thursday October 25, 2012

Croc behind disappearance of four furry friends, attacks one in full view

By LEONARD PHANG
sarawakstar@thestar.com.my

No easy task: Personnel from the Civil Defence Department trying to locate the crocodile in the monsoon drain. The croc's latest victim can be seen near the manhole.

KUCHING: A 2m crocodile was spotted inside a monsoon drain at Cahaya Permai 2C, Bandar Baru Samariang here, after it was believed to have attacked a cat late Tuesday evening.

The cat belonged to housewife Dayang Latifah, in her 50s, who is living in a single-storey house facing the Luba Samariang river.

“I see the crocodile on the river bank every time I step out of my house. As long as it doesn’t come up, I don’t bother. I used to have nine pet cats but lost five of them this month alone, including the one (today).

“At first, I thought it was a stray dog that had attacked my cats. After the incident today, I knew that it was the crocodile’s doing.

“This is the first time that I saw a crocodile in the monsoon drain since I first moved here in 2009,” she lamented.

The crocodile was first spotted by policeman Iskandar Osman, 33, around 9pm. He was near the river bank with a friend when he saw the huge reptile clenching its jaws on a cat near the monsoon drain.

“The next thing I saw, it (crocodile) fell into the drain. As I went nearer, I saw the reptile was already inside the monsoon drain moving towards the residential area,” said Iskandar.

The Civil Defence Department was contacted and two teams arrived later. It was quite a difficult task to capture the crocodile from the drain as it was high tide. The teams blocked both exits and waited for low tide.

By 1.30am yesterday during low tide, the crocodile was nowhere to be seen.

It is believed to have escaped through an opening in the drain.

Following the incident, residents of Cahaya Permai 2C requested the authorities to build a fence along the river bank to prevent the reptile from entering the housing area.

“This time, it is a cat. What if the crocodile attacks our children? We often find it lurking near the river bank,” said a worried resident who requested anonymity.

News

Thursday October 25, 2012

Croc behind disappearance of four furry friends, attacks one in full view

By LEONARD PHANG sarawakstar@thestar.com.my

By LEONARD PHANG
sarawakstar@thestar.com.my