Residents of a village in Odisha's Jajpur district were witness to the terrible sight of a crocodile devouring a woman in Birupa river on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old woman was dragged into the deep waters of the river by the crocodile when she was bathing after washing clothes in it at Palatpur village in Bari block of the district, police said.
The woman tried to free herself from the jaws of the reptile, but failed, the police said.
Locals present at the river bank saw the crocodile dragging away the woman and rushed to inform her family.
They watched helplessly as the reptile devoured the woman on the other side of the river, eyewitnesses said. Some of them even shot videos of the ghastly incident, which went viral.
Mutilated body of victim recovered
The fire brigade personnel reached the spot on being informed and recovered a mutilated portion of the woman's body as the crocodile had eaten the major portion of it, officials said.
Forest department workers too reached the spot and launched an awareness campaign in the surrounding villages over the public address system to stop people from going near the bank of the river till the crocodile is trapped, forest officials said.
The incident has triggered panic among the people of the area as most of them have to depend on the river in the absence of other sources of water.
This is the fifth incident of crocodiles killing people in Odisha in three months. In June-July four people were dragged away and killed by crocodiles in the neighbouring Kendrapara district, officials said.
