A crocodile snatched a grandfather from a riverbank and swam away with the pensioner in his jaws in Indonesia.

The massive 10ft beast snapped up Wasim, 80, as he was bathing in the Semaka River in Tanggamus Regency, Lampung, at noon on June 30.

The elderly man had just finished cutting grass in his yard and had walked into the river behind his home to clean himself.

As he bent over to scoop up some water, the huge reptile reportedly lunged from the shallows and clamped its powerful jaws down on his body.

The grandfather, exhausted from his earlier chore, was unable to shout for help as the croc yanked him beneath the surface.

Wasim was discovered missing when another villager Yusron, 40, found his clothes on the riverbank but no sign of the pensioner.

Yusron gathered the locals for a search before spotting the grandfather being dragged by the crocodile that was still lurking at the scene.

Chilling footage shows the sinister croc floating in the middle of the river with Wasim's corpse in its mouth.

Furious residents rushed into the shallow river and began battering the creature with sticks and stones, prompting it to release Wasim's body.

Semaka Police Chief AKP Sutarto said: 'The victim was found within an hour or at 13.00 WIB, after the crocodile emerged carrying him in its mouth.

'After being struck several times, the crocodile finally released the victim's body. But when recovered, he was already in a lifeless state.'

Wasim's son-in-law Samugi said the elderly man had bid his family goodbye before heading to the river that morning.

He said: 'It was just a normal day for us. We didn't expect it to end tragically like this.'

The police chief added that Wasim had suffered jagged wounds on his back, buttocks, and shoulders. His family did not question the cause of his death.

Police have urged residents to be more careful when carrying out activities in the river to prevent similar attacks from occurring.

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.