Police in South Africa have recovered the stays of a person from inside a crocodile suspected of eating him in a high-risk operation involving a helicopter.
Captain Johan Potgieter was lowered from the aircraft right into a river, where he “courageously secured a crocodile using a rope under extremely dangerous conditions,” the South African Police Service confirmed in a Facebook statement on Sunday.
The animal — which was suspected of eating a person after he was swept from his automobile while attempting to cross a bridge during flooding last week, based on the police statement — had already been killed when it was airlifted from the water and was relocated, “enabling police and other experts to recuperate the stays of a suspected missing person,” police said.
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“Following a week-long seek for the missing man, the team identified a crocodile within the river that was suspected of carrying out the attack on a missing person,” officers added in a later news release.
Footage of the procedure, shared by police and the Associated Press, shows Potgieter and the 4.5-metre-long crocodile hanging from a rope suspended from the helicopter.
“The invention of the stays signifies that the police have now taken the body parts present in the intestines of the crocodile for DNA evaluation to substantiate the identity of the deceased,” police wrote.
Lt.-Gen. Puleng Dimpane has praised the captain for his bravery.
“Capt. Potgieter’s willingness to put his own life in danger, going far beyond the decision of duty, reflects the unwavering commitment of SAPS members to serve and protect, even within the face of danger that would have cost him his life,” Dimpane said.
Potgieter told the BBC that the crocodile was lying on an island and the one viable technique to recuperate it was by air. The massive animal was shot dead by his colleagues before the retrieval portion of the mission began, he explained.
“It turned onto its back they usually thought that it was dead. But by the point we went back, it was back onto its right side, and it had swum a bit upstream,” Potgieter told the news agency, adding that they might not be certain it was dead until he made contact with it.
“Then I knew it was 100 per cent dead,” he said, “Because if it wasn’t, it might have definitely attacked me,” he continued.
There have been other animals within the vicinity through the operation, including crocodiles and hippos, in addition to hazards similar to rocks, which made the exercise too dangerous to perform by boat, he said, the British outlet reported.
“Luckily, due to noise of the helicopter and the downdraft blowing around, they moved away and didn’t trouble me,” the officer explained.
Despite almost 4 many years with the force, this was a primary for Potgieter.
“This was definitely a primary and hopefully it is going to even be the last time…there’s really no technique to prepare,” he said, as reported by the BBC.
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