A boy was reportedly mauled to death by a crocodile while washing clothes in a river in Indonesia.

Muhammad Rafli Hamzah, 14, was doing the laundry after school when the beast pounced from the murky water in South Konawe Regency, South Sulawesi, on January 5.

His horrified friends and younger sibling watched as the schoolboy tried to struggle free before being dragged from the riverbank and disappearing into the depths.

A frantic search was launched later that afternoon, with relatives and rescue volunteers scouring the river. They searched for hours before spotting Rafli's lifeless body floating in the water.

Footage shows the boy dead in the crocodile's grip on the other side of the river.

The Kendari Search and Rescue Office deployed a team to collect Rafli's body.

Search leader Amiruddin said: 'At approximately 3:30 pm WITA, a rescue team was dispatched to the scene. Upon arrival, the team conducted a search along the river using several boats, including those owned by local fishermen.'

Ipda Alimudin Latif, Kolono Police Chief, said the body, covered in bite marks, was later recovered some 200 metres from where the attack occurred.

He said: 'Yes, the victim was found dead. There were many bite wounds. He was recovered by a joint SAR and Fire Department team. We urge the public to increase their vigilance so that incidents like this do not happen again.'

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.