Woman missing after suspected crocodile attack

A WOMAN was swimming with friends at a Far North Queensland beach when she started to scream and disappeared under the water.

A TERRIFIED woman yelled “a croc’s got me” — and her friend desperately to pull her to safety — before she disappeared under the water in Far North Queensland.

The woman was swimming with friends at Thornton Beach at the Daintree, 120km north of Cairns, when she vanished about 10.30pm last night.

The Today showreported on Monday morning the 46-year-old was heard to scream “a croc’s got me”, before she was pulled under the water.

Police said the woman and a friend, 47, were in waist-deep water when the croc struck.

“Her...friend tried to grab her and drag her to safety but she just wasn’t able to do that,” Senior Constable Russell Parker told ABC radio.

The friend was taken to the Mossman hospital, suffering shock and a graze.

The beach is known to be popular with crocodiles.

The search has resumed for the woman, with SES, land and water police scouring the bushland near Thornton Beach.

There have been fatal croc attacks near the Daintree River before.

Beryl Wruck, 43, was taken by a five-metre croc after a fateful decision to take a late-night dip in the shallows of Barratt Creek, just before Christmas 1985, which feeds into the Daintree River about an hour’s drive from Thornton Beach.

Witnesses told of seeing a huge swirl in the water and Ms Wruck disappearing without a scream.

More recently, five-year-old Jeremy Doble died when he was attacked by a 4.3-metre crocodile in a swamp behind his Daintree River home.

He vanished in February 2009, with his seven-year-old brother telling police he saw a croc in the water moments the boy disappeared.

— with AAP

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Originally published as Woman missing after suspected crocodile attack