Tourist thinks croc fake, attacked mid selfie
A tourist has attempted to take a selfie with a crocodile, and found out the hard way it was not just a statue.
Warning: Distressing content
Shocking video shows the moment a tourist stupidly climbed into a crocodile’s enclosure to pose for selfies, only for the animal to turn around and attack him.
The visitor, 29, thought that the 15-foot reptile was a statue in the zoo in Zambonga Sibugay in the Philippines, NY Post reports.
In the video, the man is seen climbing over a chain-link fence and wading through water before pulling out his cellphone and grinning.
Suddenly, the fully-grown female croc, named Lalay, charges toward the man, sinking her fangs into his arm.
Gruesome footage shows the tourist screaming in pain as the animal clamps her jaws around his arm.
She then grabs hold of her victim’s thigh and flips over several times in an attempt at a deadly death roll — the method by which crocodiles try to tear their prey apart.
The tourist was reportedly trapped in the pen for 30 minutes before Lalay’s handler was able to free him by bashing the crocodile on the head with a piece of cement, causing her to loosen her grip.
Medics were able to wrap the visitor’s arm and thigh with cloth to stop the bleeding before he was rushed to the hospital.
He received more than 50 stitches.
The horrific scenes were filmed by an onlooker at the Kabug Mangrove Park and Wetlands zoo on Monday.
“The tourist was walking around the area, then he saw the crocodile, which he thought was just a plastic fixture,” Police Staff Sergeant Joel Sajolga of the Siay Municipal Police told local media.
“He climbed the fence and entered the enclosure, and the crocodile attacked him.”
He added: “This kind of behaviour is very dangerous. Nobody should ever enter an animal’s enclosure at the zoo. He put other people’s lives at risk and he is very lucky to have survived.”
This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission
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