A crocodile attack occurred Saturday in the Northern Territory of Australia at Mary River Park. The popular camping site and tourist destination is located 65 miles from Darwin, the state’s capital.

“The Mary River [in Australia] is known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world,” said Senior Sergeant Geoff Bahnert. Why then, did a 24-year-old man, knowing this fact, decide to take a swim in this river?

A group of friends were celebrating one of the members 30th birthday at Mary River Park. One of the party goers, his name has not yet been identified by officials, along with his friend, decided to swim in the river. They avoided the signs that were posted warning swimmers to stay out of the water and as they made their way way across the river, one of the men was suddenly snatched by a 5 meter-long crocodile.

Bahnert, who is from the Northern Territory Police Force said: “Several of the group in the party witnessed the male being taken in the jaws of the croc for a period of time, and then he was out of sight.”

Police carried out a search for the man on Saturday and were continuing their search on Sunday. In the process of searching for the victim, the police had to kill the largest crocodile at the site for the safety of the search team.

The man has still not been found and has been presumed to be dead. It is unknown whether or not alcohol played a factor in the man’s decision to swim in the river.

“We tell people to stay away from the water, they obviously went against this (and) a man was taken,” an employee of the resort, Erin Bayard said. “We say to everybody it’s full of crocs. It’s one of the most populated rivers in the Territory, every couple of kilometres there is a large croc.”

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