Outback croc kills German tourist

A crocodile has killed a 24-year-old German tourist as she swam in a national park in the Australian Outback, police said today.

The woman, her sister and other members of their tour group were swimming in Kakadu National Park late yesterday when the woman disappeared.

Rangers retrieved her body today after harpooning a 13ft-long crocodile about a mile from where the woman was attacked.

“The harpooning caused the crocodile to let go of what he had,” Northern Territory Police Commander Max Pope said.

Tour group members said they saw a dark shape moving through the water just before the young woman vanished. Her sister was swimming nearby at the time, police said. Their names were not released.

Park rangers and police from the nearby town of Jabiru searched through the night for the woman after the leader of the nine-member tour group called them using a satellite phone.

Pope said the group had ignored signs warning them about the danger of crocodiles.

Crocodile numbers have boomed in the Kakadu National Park since they became a protected species in 1971, but attacks remain rare.

Kakadu is listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage site, and attracts 200,000 tourists a year.

It covers almost 12,000 square miles of pristine floodplain and plateau, including spectacular waterfalls, a towering 125 mile long sandstone escarpment and many rare and endangered animals.