BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) – The body of an eight-year-old girl has been found after she was snatched by a 10 foot crocodile while swimming with relatives in the Belize River on Sunday.
“Me and my baby and my three nieces were swimming. We were right in the shore swimming, but nobody saw the crocodile when it came. And it snatched her by the feet and took her under water,” said Indira Rhaburn, the aunt of the child.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Edward Broaster, the Regional Commander for the Rural Eastern Division, said that the body of Adrianna Moody was retrieved from the river by Coastguard personnel and the police.
It was discovered some two miles from where she was seized by the crocodile on Sunday afternoon.“We learnt that one resident that was downstream saw the crocodile with the child in the mouth and fired a shot at the crocodile and the crocodile apparently released the child and the child was discovered downstream,” Broaster said.
It is illegal to shoot and kill the wild reptiles, but the police officer said that some strategy has to be outlined to deal with the high number of crocodiles in the area.
“What I can say is the fact that even in our sea, along the coast in Buttonwood Bay, in the river ways, there are too many crocodiles and we need to implement some kind of season hunting for crocodiles,” said Broaster.