STRAITS TIMES (Singapore) 17 September 03 2m-long crocodile caught in park
Armed with just a broken fishing net and two wooden sticks, three men caught a 2m-long crocodile in Woodlands Town Garden.
The reptile had been spotted sunning itself in the swampy ground near a lake in the park at 9.30am last Saturday but was caught only about four hours later.
It's the third crocodile caught in two months.
Yesterday, one of the men who netted the Woodlands crocodile told Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News about their near-miss with the creature.
Mr Gu San Di said a crowd had formed around the crocodile, alarming it and causing it to slide a little further into the water.
'I took a long wooden stick and flicked the water in front of it, to try to stop it from escaping. But I hit its mouth by accident and it swam away from me.'
He spotted a damaged fishing net nearby and grabbed it to try to block the crocodile's way, said the report. Two men then jumped to his aid, one of them using a wooden stick to prod the crocodile up onto land.
Together, the three men managed to wrap the net around the crocodile and tie it up.
The report also said that they handed it to an expert from the Jurong Crocodile and Reptile Paradise, who arrived later.
Last month, two crocodiles were nabbed at Boat Quay and Jalan Teck Whye.
Last October, police caught a 1.7m-long, 23kg estuarine crocodile, a common saltwater variety in Asia and Australia, in a drain in Trafalgar Street near Anson Road.
All three reptiles were sent to the Singapore Zoo.
The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority said that in the past five years, only one crocodile had landed in its hands. That happened last year.
Only five crocodiles have been caught in the wild and brought to the Singapore Zoo in its 29-year history.
2m-long crocodile caught in park