Man stalked by huge crocodiles for three days in Australia

PA

An Australian man is recovering after a three-day ordeal which saw him being stalked by enormous crocodiles in Queensland, Australia.

Terry Donovan, 65, was at a remote fishing hut on Dinah Island, in north Queensland, when he was cut off by flood waters this week, according to Sky News.

Mr Donovan could see that his hut was surrounded by four-metre crocodiles, and even watched as one lunged out of the water at a wallaby hiding on the hut's deck.

He told how the water kept on rising, and he was terrified it would get so high one of the crocodiles could swim straight in and attack him.

He told the Cairns Post: "The first time I saw it and it saw me, it was just outside. It sank below the surface and I saw it swim under the house.

"I was determined I wasn't going outside, come hell or high water.''

He got some supplies and sat himself on the billiards table - the highest place he could find.

"(The water) just kept going up and up and up, and it was just an inch or so above the nets where the balls are collected by the billiard table," he said.

"And I thought, 'Well, the next step is the roof, I'm out of here'."

Mr Donovan's terrifying ordeal finally came to an end after he was spotted by a helicopter, which came to look for him after a call to his satellite phone went unanswered.

Electrician Tim Gunn and helicopter pilot Lachie Tremaine-Hill were checking powerlines when they got a call from Emergency Management Queensland at Normanton asking them to fly over Mr Donovan's camp.

Mr Gunn said no one had been able to reach Mr Donovan's satellite telephone and authorities were concerned about his safety. The pair weren't able to land the helicopter because of the fast-flowing floodwater and tall trees, but could see Mr Donovan at the window of his flooded hut making a "crocodile symbol with his hands".

Once the alarm was raised, another helicopter pilot found two professional barramundi fishermen further along the river, who rescued Mr Donovan from the hut and took him to an area where a helicopter could reach him and fly him back to Normanton.


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