A brave villager caught a huge crocodile lurking in a ditch in Thailand.

Samart Sooklai, 53, had been working at a rubber plantation when he saw the beast swimming in the channel in Trat province at 10 am on December 1. He decided to wrangle the reptile himself, and called a colleague to help him subdue the animal.

Using ropes from his house, Samart and his friend snared the croc's head, then bound its jaws to keep it from snapping at them. They then hauled it onto dry land and called the local wildlife office to take it away.

The officers identified the female animal as a freshwater crocodile measuring 2.2 metres long and weighing 60 kilograms. It was estimated to be more than 10 years old.

Samart said: 'The plantation has a one-metre-deep channel. The crocodile must have gotten here by swimming in it.'

Chatchawan Wutthimethi, head of the fishing career promotion development group of the Trat Provincial Fisheries Office, said: 'We have asked the police for help finding the crocodile's owner since it is a protected species. If there is no owner, the crocodile will be handed over to the Aquaculture Center of the Fisheries Department.

'There is a freshwater crocodile farm in the Mueang District of the province. There might be a chance that this crocodile escaped from there during heavy rain. However, we still have to wait for someone to claim it.'