A boy was killed by a crocodile while retrieving a ball from a canal in Indonesia.

Nur Romadhon, 8, was playing with his friends when their ball flew towards the edge of the Rawah Indah canal in East Kalimantan.

Despite his friends' warnings, the stubborn youngster tried to retrieve the ball by himself as it rolled down the embankment.

He waded into the brown-green water, unaware that a sinister croc was gliding towards him.

The beast was said to have latched onto the boy's leg, causing him to shriek in terror. One of his friends, Pardi, grabbed onto Nur's hand and tried to pull him to safety but the ravenous predator's grip was too strong.

Nur was yanked away and the horrified kids watched as he was dragged into the depths during the incident on April 8.

Two villagers, Jumansyah, 44, and M. Ilham, 26, rushed to the scene upon hearing their panicked screams. The men saw the reptile still lurking nearby and managed to electrocute it using a generator.

They hoisted the paralysed beast onto shore and cut its belly open, only to find its stomach empty.

Police, firefighters, and rescue volunteers were later dispatched to scour the waters.

After a gruelling three hours, Nur's body was recovered downstream at around 7:22 pm local time. He had bite marks on both of his thighs, but his body was still intact.

His family wailed with grief as Nur's body was returned to them.

Senior Commissioner of Police Eduward Pardede, director of the local air and water police, said: 'The swift and collaborative work of the entire search and rescue team and the local community is commendable.

'My deepest condolences go out to the family for this tragedy. This is a warning for all of us to be more careful, especially in areas close to crocodile habitats. The situation at the canal is now under control.'

The horror attack came just days after another schoolboy was killed by a crocodile in the same province.

Mitrah, 12, was reportedly mauled by a croc while he was riding a leaky boat on the Kandilo River on March 31. His older sister Nur Hatikah had left him alone to fetch a bucket when he was allegedly dragged by the beast off the vessel.

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.

Widespread tin mining has also caused villagers to encroach on the crocodiles' natural habitats, pushing the creatures closer toward people's homes.

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.