Man’s 40-minute battle with croc

Close call: Ibrahim’s wife Salmah Isa showing the wounds on her husband’s left thigh and knee.

A man fought off a crocodile for about 40 mi­­nutes and suffered serious injuries on his upper left thigh in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, reported Utusan Malaysia.

The victim, Ibrahim Noor, 58, said he was catching prawns with his friends in the Gong Ketereh river at about 8.30pm on Tuesday when the incident happened.

Ibrahim said when he was removing some rubbish from his fishing net he felt the bite.

“The crocodile bit me and tried to drag me further into the river.

“Although I was in a critical situation, I wrestled with the crocodile and tried to punch and poke its eyes in order to escape.

“This lasted about 40 minutes and I finally escaped from the crocodile’s jaws,” he claimed.

He said he sustained a 20cm tear on his leg.

Kelantan National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department director Moham­mad Khairi Ahmad said he had deployed a team to monitor the area.

> Three men in a van tried to lure three children, aged between seven and nine, into their vehicle by offering them lollipops, reported Harian Metro.

In the 7.30pm incident on Monday, the men approached Hairani Adam’s daughters, Nur Sindi Antiqa Abdullah, seven, Nurul Hairianah, nine, as well as her niece Nuradila Saiful Bahri, eight, who were walking from the surau in Pasir Gudang.

The three suspects offered the children lollipops and tried to grab their hands, claiming that they wanted to send them home.

“I do not know what was their intention but the action of trying to grab my daughter’s hands and pull her into the van was scary,” said Hairani, adding that her children told her about the encounter.

“Luckily, the van driver sped off after seeing a man walking out of the surau,” she said after lodging a report at the Seri Alam police station.

She said the number plate was covered.

Seri Alam OCPD Supt Jokhiri Abdul Aziz confirmed receiving the report and said that the police were investigating the case.

> The Malay daily also reported of actress Erra Fazira questioning the motives behind her wedding rumours with Akademi Fantasia season eight winner Shahir Zawawi.

The 42-year-old actress said they did not make any announcement on their wedding.

“I have not seen him for quite some time and we only communicate by phone and WhatsApp. I wonder how such rumours started,” she said, adding that they were not rushing to tie the knot.

> Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.