Sarawak man survives crocodile attack by poking its eyes to escape

SINGAPORE: A 39-year-old man in Sarawak narrowly escaped death after being attacked by a crocodile while fishing with his family in a lake in Marudi.

According to the Malay Mail, Dennis Karon was fishing with his brother and other villagers on Sunday morning (Jul 13), when the incident occurred. The group had crossed the lake by boat to fish and later stopped to have a meal on the shore.

At around 10 a.m., they noticed bubbles on the water’s surface and initially believed they were caused by schools of fish.

Dennis’ niece recounted that when Dennis cast a net toward the bubbles, it became entangled. He and his brother jumped into the lake to free it. Moments later, his brother resurfaced, but Dennis was missing.

The group immediately became alarmed, boarded the boat again, and began slapping the hull to create noise.

Soon, they saw Dennis struggling to rise to the surface in the middle of the lake and realised that he had been seized by a crocodile.

Dennis managed to fight off the crocodile by poking the crocodile’s eyes and escaped with his life but sustained severe injuries, including a broken right arm and multiple wounds to his head and body.

At 4:38 p.m., the Sarawak Civil Defence Force received an emergency call and immediately dispatched a rescue team to the village. They located Dennis at the ferry terminal and rushed him to the hospital for treatment.

Dennis’ niece added that this was not the first time villagers had encountered such danger. She said there have been three reported cases of crocodile attacks in the area, and in each case, the victims survived by targeting the crocodile’s eyes.