Sandeep screamed for help after the crocodile sunk its teeth deep into his right leg (Representational)
A leisurely swim in the river turned into a near-death experience for a 14-year-old boy in Gujarat after a crocodile bit his right leg and tried to pull him inside the water. Sandeep Kamlesh Parmar was out for a swim with his friends near Gunbhakhari village in the Sabarkantha district, around 200 km away from Vadodara on Monday, reported news agency PTI.
Sandeep screamed for help after the crocodile sunk its teeth deep into the boy's right leg. His friends rushed to his rescue, throwing stones at the crocodile. It was this that made the creature let go of this foot.
Sandeep's friends dragged him away from the crocodile to safety and proceeded to call an ambulance. The boy was admitted to the nearest local hospital for medical treatment.
The boy's bones below his right knee were severely damaged, the civil hospital's superintendent Dr Ashwin Gadhvi told PTI over the phone, and praised his friends for tackling the crocodile.
"After providing medical help here, we sent him to the district civil hospital in Himatnagar for better treatment," he was quoted as saying by PTI.
The boy's father also thanked his friends for their help.
This is not the first time an incident involving a crocodile happened in Gujarat. In 2015, Diwalinen Vankar, a 58-year-old woman, came to the rescue of her daughter who was attacked by a crocodile while she was bathing.
The woman, on seeing a crocodile bite her daughter's right leg, caught hold of her hand and hit the crocodile's jaw with a wooden bat she was using to wash her clothes with.
In January, Gujarat government officials said they would be relocating around 300 crocodiles from two ponds near the Statue of Unity. The move was undertaken by the state government for the safety of tourists.
Officials said they used 20 cages with meat and fish as bait to lure the crocodiles and trap them.
(With Inputs From PTI)