MARUDI: A 3.5 meters length crocodile was caught yesterday in ‘sang bedal’ operation to find crocodile that attacked a Form Five girl recently at Peking Long Lama River.
Baram District Police Chief, DSP Gabriel Risut said the operation was carried out at the Taping Peking Long Lama River by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) Marudi led by ASP Goldy, Sergeant Wahid, Corporal Fadly and Lance Corporal Alfius together with Miri Forest Department officers and staff and also assisted by seven longhouse residents using two boats.
According to Gabriel during the operation that started about 2.00pm, the team was divided into two groups. They found out that three of the nine chickens put up as baits were missing and believed eaten by the crocodile.
Approximately at 3.00 pm the group encountered a crocodile that took the bait within 2km from the scene and was shot to dead by the forest department personnel as requested by the villagers.
The lifeless body of the crocodile was brought to the base at Rumah Jampang and after thorough check was made by the Forest Department the crocodile was confirmed as not the one that attacked a female student recently.
The search continued until 5.00 pm yesterday but failed to track down the culprit of the attack.
Gabriel insisted the operations would resume yesterday due to the weather factor to find the crocodile or crocodiles that took the other two baits.
In another development, six Indonesian men were arrested by police officers from the Marudi police headquarters (IPD) in collaboration with the Miri Immigration Department (JIM) in a joint operation at 2:00 am Tuesday morning.
According to Gabriel, they were arrested at hydro area of Kampung Pa’Ramapuh, Bario and those caught did not have any documents and were sent directly to Miri yesterday morning for further action by Miri Immigration Department.
