Girl, 6, snatched by crocodile in front of horrified grandad while swimming

Cicilia Julan Intik, 6, was snatched by a crocodile in Malaysia while swimming in a river and dragged underwater in front of her horrified grandad who was bathing with other people

A six-year-old girl is missing after she was snatched by a crocodile in front of her horrified grandfather while swimming in a river in Malaysia.

Tragically the youngster called Cicilia Julan Intik is presumed dead after the incident in Sarawak on Wednesday. She was suddenly attacked by the crocodile and dragged under the water.

Local media reports said that her grandfather, who had been bathing with other people at the time, had witnessed the incident but was unable to do anything due to the speed of the attack. Firefighters were sent to the scene to search for the missing girl, but so far there have been no signs of her.

Tatau fire station chief Jankey Jikat said the search and rescue operation is ongoing, adding he would provide updates periodically. “I will be joining the team for the search and rescue operation later,” he said. Rescuers stopped their searches at 8:30pm on Wednesday after sundown and have continued to look this morning. Crocodile attacks are rare in Malaysia, with just over 200 cases reported over the last 20 years.

It comes a month after a grandmother washing pots in a river in Indonesia was dragged underwater and killed by a crocodile, before it bit off nearly all of her limbs. Halima Rahakbauw, 54, was washing up in the Wali River in Maluku, after having fresh clams for lunch when the massive reptile attacked. The 14-ft crocodile dragged her into a death roll to subdue her. Halima’s arms and a leg were bitten off in the attack.

The incident was spotted by passer-by Ali Rahangmetan who was crossing the Wali Bridge when he spotted flailing in the water. He raised the alarm and Halima's family were alerted. Ali said: “ I saw someone swimming, but I couldn't see their body. Only their legs were visible. To make sure, I went out of my car and finally saw it was a human being eaten by a crocodile. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. Only the legs and intestines of the person were visible.”

The female crocodile was later found still gnawing on Halima's mangled corpse before police shot it dead. Villagers dragged the reptile's body back to town and cut it open where they found Halima's body parts in its stomach. Jamia Seknun, one of Halima's relatives, said she saw the grandmother earlier in the walking from the river with a bucket of shellfish. The elderly woman then returned later to the river to clean the pots.

The Indonesian archipelago is home to 14 types of crocodile, with a large population of extremely large and violent estuarine crocs who flourish in the region's climate. Conservationists believe they have been driven further inland closer to villages due to overfishing which have reduced the crocodiles' natural food supplies combined with habitat loss from the development of coastal areas into farms.