Remains found after suspected crocodile attack in remote NT

Police have found the remains of a 12-year-old girl believed to have been taken by a crocodile in remote Palumpa in the Northern Territory.

Transcript

00:00Just a few kilometres from where I'm standing is Mango Creek, where the remains of a 12-year-old

00:07girl have been discovered less than two days after she was first reported missing.

00:13Mango Creek is located just a few kilometres outside of the remote community of Palumpa.

00:18We understand the girl was enjoying a late afternoon swim around 5.30 on Tuesday afternoon

00:24when she was attacked by what witnesses described to police as a black crocodile.

00:29That concerning information sparked a very swift response with both police and members

00:34of Parks and Wildlife spending more than 36 painstaking hours combing through the river

00:40banks by foot and searching through dense pandanus by boat.

00:44The child's t-shirt was located last night upstream with her body discovered close by

00:50earlier this morning.

00:52Based on her traumatic injuries, police have today confirmed that a crocodile was almost

00:57certainly involved in that child's death.

01:00This is obviously an extremely distressing set of circumstances both for the community,

01:05the child's family and of course for the first responders who made that gruesome discovery.

01:10There is nothing nice to be said.

01:12It was an extremely difficult, essentially 36 hours, difficult for the first responders

01:20involved in the search.

01:23However for the family it is the most devastating outcome.

01:27The crocodile responsible for this attack is yet to be located although traps have been

01:31set in Mango Creek and we're told authorities will continue to monitor the waterways over

01:37the coming days.

01:38This is the first fatal crocodile attack in the Northern Territory since 2018.