A villager was found half-eaten by a crocodile in a river in Indonesia.

Ariyanto Kasukung, 31, told his family he was going late-night fishing in Buga Village in Central Sulawesi province at 10 pm on November 6.

He took his harpoon and set off, but never returned to his home in Malala Village the next morning. The family said they reported his disappearance to the police, as he usually returned home immediately.

Locals and rescue teams scoured Ariyanto's favourite fishing spots but found no sign of him. The search continued until November 8, when villagers found his mangled corpse lying on mangrove roots near Buga Beach. He had been eaten from the waist-down.

His remains were collected and handed over to his family for a funeral.

Iptu Laurens S Dossy, chief of the Ogodeide District police, said: 'Crocodile attacks on humans occur almost every year in this district.

'Between January and November 2024, three crocodile attacks on residents were reported. Local authorities and the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) regularly educate the community about the attacks.'

The local official added that warning signs were installed in high-risk areas to encourage residents to be careful in areas known to be near crocodile habitats.

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.