Cambodian man killed by 40 crocodiles at reptile farm

A Cambodian man Friday, was killed when around 40 crocodiles attacked him as he fell into their enclosure on his family's reptile farm in Siem Reap, police said.

A 72-year-old, Luan Nam, was in the middle of trying to move a crocodile out of a cage where it had laid eggs, using a stick as a goad which the crocodile grabbed and pulled him in.

A group of 40 crocodiles followed after him, "tearing his body to pieces and leaving the concrete enclosure at the farm awash with blood," AFP reported.

"While he was chasing a crocodile out of an egg-laying cage, the crocodile attacked the stick, causing him to fall into the enclosure," said Mey Savry, police chief of Siem Reap commune, told AFP.

He added that the crocodiles had "pounced on his body until he was dead" leaving his body covered with bite marks.

"Luan Nam was the president of the local crocodile farmers' association but his family may now sell his stock, after urging him for years to stop raising the reptiles," commune chief May Sameth told AFP.

According to local media, the victim was from Po Banteay Chey village.

Reptile farms are commonly found around Siem Reap and keep reptiles for their eggs, skins and meat as well as the trade in their young.

As a result, there have been many incidents involving crocodile attacks in the area.

Previously, a two-year-old girl was killed and eaten by crocodiles in 2019 as she wandered into her family's reptile farm in the same village, the police chief said.

The incident marks at least the second person killed by a crocodile this month. In early May, the remains of a missing 65-year-old fisherman in Australia were found inside two crocodiles.

Last year, two American tourists were injured by a crocodile at a resort in Mexico when one went swimming in the ocean at night and the other went in the water to help him.