Giant croc caught after spate of deaths

A MONSTER 21-foot (6.4-metre) crocodile — believed to be the biggest ever captured in the world — has been trapped in the southern Philippines after a spate of fatal attacks.

The 2,370-pound saltwater male is suspected of eating a farmer who went missing in July in the town of Bunawan, and of killing a 12-year-old girl whose head was bitten off two years ago, crocodile hunter Rollie Sumiller said.

Following the capture, the hunter examined the crocodile’s stomach contents by forcing it to vomit, but there was no trace of human remains or of several water buffaloes also reported missing by locals.

“The community was relieved,” Sumiller said of the capture, but added: “We’re not really sure if this is the man-eater, because there have been other sightings of other crocodiles in the area.”

The local government of the impoverished town of 30,000 people has decided against putting down the reptile, and will instead build a nature park where it will go on display.

Josefina de Leon, wildlife division chief at the Philippines environment ministry, said the beast was likely the biggest crocodile ever captured anywhere in the world.

The Philippine specimen would easily dwarf the largest captive saltwater crocodile, which the Guinness World Records website lists as Cassius — a 5.48-metre (18-foot) male which lives at a nature park in Australia.

The Bunawan hunting team — employed by a government-run crocodile breeding farm, began laying bait including dog meat on August 15 in an attempt to snare the beast.

But the reptile, which measured three feet across its back, simply bit off both the meat and the line it was skewered on.

A heavy metal cable finally proved beyond the power of its jaws, and the beast was subdued in a creek with the help of about 30 local men.

It was the team’s second attempt at capture, after a failed expedition launched in response to the fatal 2009 attack.