Man Pokes Crocodile In Eye To Stop Attack

A "tipsy" Australian man has told how he was attacked by a crocodile - but managed to fight off the predator by poking it in the eye.

Stephen Moreen said he was bitten on the arm and was then taken under the water by the two-metre long reptile which carried out a "death roll".

The 20-year-old survivor said once he prodded the animal in the eye "he let go" and his cousin shot the creature.

The attack happened near the remote community of Peppimenarti, 313km (195 miles) southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory, as the pair were hunting geese.

Mr Moreen admitted he did not feel the pain of the bite as he was a "little bit tipsy" and had some more beer while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

He told the ABC: "I wasn't too worried until I saw the scars. It made me cry.

"I'm fine, I'm alive. It could have been bad. It could have got my leg. I was about waist deep (in water).

"I have a scratch on my back, the rest on my arm. He ripped out a bit of skin and left me with two to three holes."

Crocodiles are common in the tropical north where numbers have increased since the introduction of protection laws in 1971.

There are now between 75,000 and 100,000, according to government estimates.

Last month, authorities shot a crocodile which was believed to have eaten a 57-year-old fisherman on the Adelaide River in the north.

Also in August a 22-year-old man disappeared near a beach in the Northern Territory's Melville Island and was feared to have been taken by a crocodile.

In June, a crocodile snatched a man from his boat in the north's Kakadu National Park, while in January a 12-year-old boy was killed by a crocodile in the same park.