Human remains found inside crocodile

Human remains have been discovered inside a crocodile suspected of killing and eating a missing British-born man in Australia.

Officials in Queensland who have been investigating the fate of Arthur Brooker, 62, said they had found the remains inside one of three big crocodiles captured in the Endeavour River.

Mr Booker, who is originally from Scotland and served with Australian forces in the Vietnam war, vanished from the banks of the crocodile-infested river in Cape York last week while checking pots used to catch crabs.

The three crocodiles, longtime residents of the Endeavour, were then caught and taken by truck to a veterinary surgery in Cairns. One has been ruled out as a possible culprit but the other two will be subjected to further tests, a police spokesman said following the initial discovery of human tissue.

Police said that at this stage no more crocodiles will be trapped in the river.

They added that the crocodile shown not to have been involved in any possible attack on Mr Brooker would be returned home to the river.

But a return to the wild has been ruled out for the largest of the three, a 4.3 metre long male, which had shown aggressive territorial behaviour and would probably now be sent to a farm, said Michael Devery, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency.