A schoolboy was killed by a crocodile while swimming with his friends on a beach in Indonesia.

Fardan Nustelu, 7, was bathing with two of his classmates near Kampung Baru Village in the Buru Regency on January 13 afternoon.

The youngster was paddling further away from the other boys when a 10ft crocodile emerged from the water and snapped him up in front of his horrified friends.

Onlookers said the children screamed as Fardan was thrashed around in the reptile's brutal 'death roll'. They pulled themselves out of the water and frantically ran back to the village to ask for help.

Buru Police Chief AKBP Sulastri Sukidjang said in a statement: 'At that time, the victim was swimming quite far from his two friends. Some time later, the friends saw a crocodile suddenly attack the victim. They were immediately frightened and ran to the victim's parents' house.

'Residents of Kampung Baru Village together with the Village Supervisory Non-Commissioned Officer (Babinsa) then conducted a search for the victim around the beach and the lake on the edge of Kampung Baru Village.'

The search team, including Fardan's father Irwan Nustelu, scoured the coast and estuary near the village. At 2:45 pm local time, they found the boy's battered body floating in a swamp with his left leg severed by the crocodile.

Heartbreaking footage shows his family wailing in grief as his body was carried back to his home for a funeral.

Vengeful villagers then returned to the swamp to hunt the killer crocodile.

The beast was found with part of Fardan's left leg floating nearby. It was caught with a net and subsequently cut open as the residents tried to find more body parts inside.

The Kampung Bara Village military officer said: 'This incident is very heartbreaking. We hope that residents will be more vigilant, especially in areas that are likely to be crocodile habitats.'

Fardan's death comes just days after a schoolgirl was attacked by a crocodile in another Indonesian village.

Caca, 5, was wading into the water to join her parents for a bath when she was attacked by the beast in Bukit Layang Village in the Bangka Regency at around 9 am on January 11.

Police said she was found with her skull crushed by the reptile's powerful jaws the following morning.

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.