A grandfather was ripped in half and had his head swallowed by a crocodile while bathing in a river in Indonesia.

M Yunus, 68, told his wife Dimyam, 64, he would go for a wash in the Peureulak River behind their home in East Aceh Regency, Aceh province, on August 29 morning.

However, he failed to return home after a few hours, sparking worry that he had drowned in the water.

Dimyam went to the river and found only her husband's clothes and mobile phone on the banks. She rushed back to their village and called police and her family for help.

Iptu Andi Ananta Grilya Utama, Ranto Peureulak Police Chief, said in a statement: 'Suspecting that her husband had drowned, the victim's wife then informed her son who lives in Langsa.'

Rescue teams and volunteers scoured the river but failed to find the grandfather's body.

The search was concluded the following morning, August 30, when East Aceh Regional Disaster Management Agency personnel finally discovered Yunus's corpse drifting downstream around a mile away from where he had left his clothes.

He was reportedly caught in a wooden branch and the entire upper half of his body was missing.

Authorities believe he was attacked and devoured by a crocodile. The remains of his body were collected and taken home for a funeral but his upper body, head and arms are yet to be found. They believe the killer croc had ate the rest of the grandfather.

Farm workers found a massive dead crocodile suspected of killing Yunus along the riverbank on August 31. It was lying lifeless in the undergrowth at the edge of a palm oil plantation.

A shaken resident, Abdullah, said: 'We thought it was the crocodile that ate Yunus, so we cut it open but we found no human body parts inside.

'People from Bhom Lama and Paya Meuligo villages now feel worried and reluctant to carry out their activities as usual around the river.'

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.