Rescue teams are searching for the body a teenage girl who was attacked by a crocodile in Indonesia.

An Sinar, 16, was bathing in the Benggaulu River outside her home in Central Mamuju Regency, West Sulawesi Province, on Monday at around 5pm.

She was with her mother just a short walk from the family home in the village of Karossa when the reptile pounced on the girl.

An's mother said she screamed and tried to grab her daughter while she was thrashed around in the water by the croc. However, the strength of the animal allowed it to drag her away and sink into the depth.

Search and rescue teams arrived shortly before nightfall but there was no sign of the schoolgirl anywhere along the river banks. They began trawling the river at first light but are yet to find An.

Rezky Ilhamsyah, Coordinator of the Data and Information Center for the Central Mamuju Regional Disaster Management Agency, said: 'Based on the testimony of the witnesses, the victim was taking a bath with her mother. The crocodile suddenly appeared and pounced on the victim.

'We don't know how big the size of the crocodile was. Residents say it happened very quickly. It had the girl in its jaws and pulled her away. She is small and light so was easily overpowered.'

Residents who were at the scene of the crocodile attack incident were hysterical when they saw the victim taken away by the crocodile.

Villagers have joined the teams searching the river in motorboats. They vowed to kill the reptile if they can find it.

Resident Mo Acha said: 'I feel the crocodile is still in the area and could attack again. We have to find it before another child is taken.'

In August this year, teenager Farjan Idham, 15, was decapitated by a savage killer crocodile while he was fishing with friends in a volcanic lake in Ternate City, North Maluku, Indonesia.

While on December 1 in neighbouring Malaysia, a one-year-old boy was eaten alive and his father seriously injured by a crocodile while they were rowing on a river in Lahad Datu in Sabah.

The Indonesian archipelago is home to 14 types of crocs - with a large population of extremely large and violent estuarine crocodiles that flourish in the region's climate which provides them with abundant food.

Conservation officials blame habitat degradation due to blast fishing and the conversion of coastal areas into farms for driving the creatures out of the wild and closer to villages.

With locals in the developing country still using rivers for bathing and primitive fishing, the combination of factors has caused a 'perfect storm' and lead to rising numbers of crocodile attacks on humans.