Rescuers scoured a river for a missing tin miner believed to have been attacked by a crocodile in Indonesia.

Local search and rescue (SAR) teams were desperately searching for Febry Yansah, 19, who was reportedly snapped up by the killer reptile in Bangka Regency on the evening of July 2.

The teenager, a miner on the Bangka Belitung islands known for its rich tin deposits, was repairing his boat on the edge of the Pelaben River when the leathery leviathan lunged from the water.

The lad had no time to react as the beast clamped down on his body and dragged him under the murky water.

Authorities launched a search after other miners rushed back to the village to report the incident.

Footage shows a rescue crew combing through the croc-infested river on a boat.

I Mada Oka Astawa, head of the Pangkalpinang SAR Office, said: 'After receiving the information, we immediately sent a rescue team to help search for the victim. We maximised the search at night using visual monitoring from a thermal drone.

'The community also carried out a search using a wooden boat. Hopefully the search efforts for the victim will soon produce results.'

The search was ongoing on Friday morning, July 4, but no sign of Febry's body had turned up. The team instead found only several crocodiles lurking nearby.

Merawang Police Chief, Iptu Syarifuddin, said the teen did not have a permit to mine in the area.

He said: 'This location is indeed illegal but mining activities are often carried out and have been for a long time. We ask illegal miners to stop so incidents like this don't happen.'

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.