‘You can’t legislate for stupidity’: night swimmer grabbed by crocodile

A woman who went night swimming off a beach in northeast Australia is missing after she was attacked by a crocodile. The 46-year-old Australian was with her friend in shallow water at Thornton Beach, Queensland, on Sunday night when she was pulled under. Her friend attempted to rescue the woman from the reptile’s jaws but was unable to do so. Searchers scoured the areas in a rescue helicopter fitted with thermal imaging equipment but failed to find any trace of the victim.

The report that we have from the surviving woman is that they felt a nudge and her partner started to scream and then was dragged into the water.

Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Neil Noble

The area where the woman went missing is about 57 miles (90km) north of Cairns and well off the main highway.  Reports varied as to the depth of the water with police saying it was waist deep and paramedics saying she was up to her knees. Warren Enstch, the MP for the area, said the women had to accept some of the blame. "You can’t legislate against human stupidity,“ he said. In 1985 a giant crocodile known as Big Jim took local postal worker Beryl Wruck while she was having a late-night swim about an hour’s drive from Thornton Beach. Crocodile numbers have surged in northern Australia since the animals became a protected species in 1971.

If you go in swimming at 10 o'clock at night, you’re going to get consumed.

Warren Enstch MP

Queensland crocodile