A grandmother was eaten alive by a crocodile while washing the pots in a river.

Halima Rahakbauw, 54, was cleaning plates after eating freshly caught clams for lunch when she was attacked by the 14ft leviathan lurking in the Wali River in Maluku, Indonesia, on August 20.

The croc dragged her into the water and went into a killer 'death roll' to subdue its victim before biting off two arms and a leg.

Passer-by Ali Rahangmetan said he was crossing the Wali Bridge when he spotted flailing in the water. He then raised the alarm and Halima's family were alerted.

Ali said: 'At around 10:30 am, 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 that 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.'

Ali called the police and a search was launched for Halima, who had been reported missing by her relatives.

Assistant Inspector Abson Tonga, head of the Bursel Police Resort (Polres) Integrated Police Service Centre, said: 'After arriving at the Wali River, the personnel and volunteers immediately conducted a search around the riverbanks.'

The female crocodile was finally caught at 12:37pm local time. It was reportedly still gnawing on Halima's mangled corpse before police shot it dead.

Villagers dragged the reptile's body back to town. They cut it open and 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 - never to return.

She said: 'She left early in the morning because she was afraid the river level would rise by noon. Later, my mother screamed that a crocodile had eaten someone. I didn't know who it was at first, but I had a feeling it was her.'

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.

Conservationists believe that crocodiles have been driven further inland closer to villages due to overfishing reducing the crocodiles' natural food supplies combined with habitat loss from the development of coastal areas into farms.

With uneducated locals in the developing country still using rivers for bathing and primitive fishing, the deadly combination of factors has led to rising numbers of crocodile attacks.