12-year-old girl attacked by seven-foot saltwater crocodile near Darwin

A 12-year-old girl has narrowly escaped serious injury after being attacked by a large saltwater crocodile in the Northern Territory.

The 2.2 meter tall beast attacked a child in a rural stream south of Darwin.

She was “extremely lucky” to have escaped and suffered only minor injuries, the Department for Environment, Parks and Water Safety said.

She was taken to Palmerston Regional Hospital in stable condition and has since been discharged.

A young girl narrowly escaped serious injury after being attacked by a large saltwater crocodile in the Northern Territory. The 2.2 meter tall beast attacked the teenager in a rural stream south of Darwin (the crocodile is pictured).

“A crocodile of this size can cause serious, life-threatening injuries,” the department said in a statement.

“This is a timely reminder to always be Crocwise.

“High water levels during the rainy season make it easy for crocodiles to enter areas undetected.

“Crocodiles can inhabit any body of water in the Top End.”

The Crocodile Management Team said they pulled the crocodile out of the creek just hours after receiving the report.

They have removed more than 70 crocodiles from the area in recent years, some of which are over ten feet long.

The Crocodile Management Team said they pulled the crocodile out of the stream hours after receiving the report

It comes after a wildlife expert urged governments to take action against a recent social media trend of people deliberately entering crocodile habitats.

Mick Bender, a wildlife educator for Wildlife Unleashed, says he wants the government to introduce fines for those who intentionally enter places where crocodiles are common, to discourage people from putting themselves in danger.

The trend has surfaced on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, with people posting videos of themselves entering crocodile nesting grounds and waterways.

His warning comes after 37-year-old Alister MacPhee recorded falling into the water at a remote boat ramp in Cooktown, north Queensland, before being bitten in the leg by a crocodile, which then attacked his dog on February 22 and killed.

An fishing influencer from far north Queensland, Daniel Colombini, was recently criticized after he was seen jumping off a 10-metre cliff into the crocodile-infested Tully River.

A video showing a man grabbing the tail of a resting crocodile in a small waterway has been viewed over 1.3 million times on TikTok.

Another TikTok video that has a similar number of views shows a man on a boat angering a nearby crocodile with what appears to be a wetsuit.

A video Queensland crab Casey Eames posted to TikTok shows a crocodile just a meter from the back of its metal boat waiting for food to be thrown from the back.

Mr Eames told the Daily Mail Australia in 2022 that people who feed crocodiles are incredibly dangerous as when they grow to full size they are likely to attack boats and kill people.

“As cool as it would be to feed wild saltwater crocodiles, it’s a silly thing to do because when they grow up they’re going to flip a boat and kill someone,” he said.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk