‘Amazing’: How man escaped croc’s jaws after being attacked in North Qld

How a man freed himself and survived a horrifying crocodile attack in North Queensland has been described as ‘amazing”. This is how he did it.

A man has survived a brutal attack from a two to three-metre crocodile in North Queensland after wrestling it away with just one hand.

The chaos unfolded at the waterfall gorge at Adels Grove, 300km north west of Mount Isa, about 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

The man, aged in his 40s, sustained hands and leg injuries and was flown to hospital where he is in a stable condition.

Police were told he wrestled with the freshwater crocodile before managing to escape.

LifeFlight Rescue aircrew officer Greig Allan said the crocodile attacked after it was startled by the man.

“He was trying to get himself into a small waterfall and didn‘t see the croc. As he reached in the croc was startled and latched on to his arm,” Mr Allan told the Today show.

“As you can imagine a two to three-metre croc grabbing you by the arm is going to create some pretty significant injuries, which is what he had.”

The man freed himself from the predator’s jaws using his one good hand but sustained further injuries in doing so.

“He managed to wrestle himself free, which is just amazing with his one good hand, but in doing so created a whole lot of other injuries, puncture both wounds to his hands, Mr Allan said.

“As the croc left it had another little nip to his leg just for good measure.”

A man was attacked by a crocodile in remote North Queensland.

The man had been on a motorcycle tour of the park and was transported to an airstrip by members of the group.

Queensland Ambulance Service Northwest District Superintendent Brad Hardy acknowledged the park was home to a high number of crocodiles.

“They are normally quite timid but when they are surprised they will be aggressive,” he said.

Mr Allan said the man was lucky to have survived the terrifying attack.

“He was actually a pretty good spirits considering. I think coming into contact with a two or three minute crocodile is terrifying and he did well and managed to walk into the hospital,” he told Sunrise.

“It was a pretty hot day yesterday and as most people do in this part of the world they use the gorge for a cooling off and a rest area and everybody knows that it is full of freshwater crocodiles but it is very rare that one would actually bite you.”

Mr Allan also praised the efforts of the man’s colleagues who applied first aid and got him to a nearby airstrip.

The attack comes just a week after a 38-year-old woman was bitten on the leg by a freshwater croc while swimming at Lake Argyle in the remote Kimberley Region of Western Australia.