VietNamNet Bridge - While the authorities are urgently hunting the remaining of the over 100 crocodiles that escaped from a farm in Ca Mau city, a crocodile appeared on National Highway 1A and was beaten to death by local people.

Ca Mau: About 100 crocodiles escaped from cages

On October 16, Ca Mau rangers said that professional crocodile hunters from Bac Lieu province caught an additional 17 crocodiles on the night of October 15 and the early morning of October 16. The hunters were hired by Quoc Viet Seafood Processing Co. Ltd., which owns the Quoc Viet crocodile farm in Dinh Binh commune, Ca Mau city.

This farm has a total of 580 crocodiles and so far 90 crocodiles have been recaptured. However, until now, the local authorities do not know exactly how many crocodiles escaped from the farm on October 12.

At nearly 1am on October 16, people of Cay Tram A hamlet, Dinh Binh commune, saw a crocodile on the Highway 1 A and beat it to death. A group of young men took the dead animal away before the police came.




Earlier, a crocodile was also seen on the highway on the night of October 12. A group of eight people caught the animal and asked for VND3 million ($150) of ransom from Quoc Viet farm.

Professional crocodile hunters returned to Bac Lieu on the morning of October 16 while the number of escaped crocodiles was not fixed yet. However, the 5,000sq.m crocodile pond was dried up in the afternoon and workers began counting the crocodiles.

In another situation, Mr. Nguyen Van Trang, a local man, asked Quoc Viet farm to pay compensation of VND10 million ($500) because a lot of fish in his pond died when hunters searched for crocodiles.

Quoc Huy-Thu Dong