The girl had been swimming with other children and an adult at a frequently
visited waterhole at the Gumarrirnbang outstation, about 200 miles east of
Darwin.
“Witnesses have told police that a crocodile attacked the male adult
before pulling the girl under water,” Senior Sergeant Shaun Gill said.
Charmana Namarnyilk, 24, a member of the girl’s tight-knit community of
Maningrida, said people were comforting each other and continuing to search
for the girl.
“We just lost our little girl,” Ms Namarnyilk told the Northern
Territory News.
“We are having a church service. We came together and we’re helping one
another.”
Crocodiles are a common feature of northern Australia,
where the reptiles can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh more than a ton.
Aboriginal groups have developed various measures for preventing attacks at
creeks and waterholes, including standing back from the water and throwing
medium-sized rocks at 12-inch intervals along the bank to try to provoke an
attack and reveal the crocodile’s position.
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