A territorial crocodile killed a fisherman then returned with his body in its jaws in Indonesia.

The beast crawled along a riverbank and pounced on Arpan Munthe, 43, while he was cleaning his boat on the Simangalam river, South Sumatra province, on October 18.

Arpan screamed as the beast sank its teeth into his thigh and dragged him into the foliage before disappearing into the water with him thrashing around.

A shocked neighbour heard the panicked cries for help and rushed to the scene before reporting the attack to officials who immediately launched a search and rescue operation.

Ginton Simanjuntak said: ''When the victim was bathing on the river bank, a crocodile suddenly appeared and dragged him to the bottom of the river. He cried for help, but we couldn’t do anything because the victim and the crocodile quickly disappeared."

Another resident added: "We heard Arpan screaming for help and saw him on the boat in the middle of the river fighting a crocodile. We did not have a boat and we can't swim into the water and fight the animal so we called for help."

The rescue team started their search from the area where the attack happened and went further into the river.

However, they did not find the crocodile or the fisherman's body so they had to continue the search the next day.

They worked until sunset on October 19 and the fisherman's family was already losing hope until the crocodile appeared in the evening. The greedy crocodile still clutched the fisherman's body in its mouth when it was found.

Rescuers spread a net to catch the agile crocodile but it was able to escape and left the victim's mangled body on the net.

They grabbed the body from the water and placed in a bag before taking to the morgue for the family's funeral arrangements. He was also buried that night.

Provincial Disaster Management Agency Division Head Sukardi said they will continue patrolling the river for the territorial crocodile amid fears it could attack another fisherman.

The crocodile is believed to have attacked and killed Arpan without eating him as a sign it was protecting its territory.

Sukardi said: "We need to rehabilitate and evacuate the deadly crocodile from the river because there are people there and it appeared to be territorial. It will attack another person who enters its lair."