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Fisherman, 29, escapes crocodile who had clamped



Residents of Australia's tropical north know that you don't go swimming in the sea at night because that's when crocodiles are most dangerous.


But French fisherman Yoann Galeran didn't know the rules and happily dived into the waters off Arnhem Land - which is why he ended up with his head firmly between the jaws of a saltwater croc.


It dragged him underwater, with his head locked between its teeth and attempted a death roll in which victims are spun around until they drown.

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Lucky escape: Yoann Galeran 29, said he was swimming from shore to a dinghy when a crocodile clamped down on his head and neck and attempted to drown him










Escape: Mr Galeran had four puncture wounds on his head and was bleeding as he climbed aboard a dinghy to escape the crocodile


At the age of 29, however, Mr Galeran wasn't ready to die just yet and in dark and dangerous waters so far from home.

'I didn't think about dying - I thought only about fighting to stay alive,' he said back on his boat today after his ordeal.




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'I just feel that I've been lucky and I just think if it was a bigger crocodile I maybe wouldn't have any head.'

Mr Galeran intended to swim to a dinghy about 20 yards from the shore at Nhulunbuy in north-east Arnhem Land, east of Darwin, on a night when there was no moon.

'I was just a short way into the water when it felt like a big stone or something coming on my head. I just thought for sure it was a croc and I started to think the only thing to do was to move my body as much as I could.




In his own words: How a fisherman ESCAPED the croc clamped on his...




Attack: My head was in the crocodile's mouth for less than a second, but it was long enough to give me two puncture wounds on the back of my neck' said Mr Galeran

'He just hit me on the top, on the left side and on top of my neck and tried to push me down in the water.'

Mr Galeran - Jo to his friends - said he managed to free his head by hitting the crocodile with his fists.

'I punch him anywhere I could,' he said.


'But his weight and the power of him swimming pulled me about a metre under the water.


'Under the water the crocodile began to spin me around.'


In his broken English he said he hit the croc under its head, then pushed it away which gave him the chance to escape.


'My head was in the crocodile's mouth for less than a second, but it was long enough to give me two puncture wounds on the back of my neck and another three or four punctures on each side of my head.'




Menacing: A Saltwater crocodile - it was not fully grown, estimated to be eight to 10 feet long, but it would have been strong enough to have taken Mr Galeran's head off if it had managed a better grip (file photo)

Mr Galeran was also scratched on his back where the crocodile had tried to grip him with its claws.


Once free, he swam frantically to the dinghy and climbed abroad, bleeding from his wounds. His work colleagues later took him to a medical centre for treatment.


Mr Craig van Lawick, skipper of the fishing vessel on which Mr Galeran works said at first everyone thought the Frenchman was playing a joke.

'It wasn't until he got ashore and we saw the claret (blood) flowing that we realised it was real.'

The crocodile was not fully grown, estimated to be eight to 10 feet long, but it would have been strong enough to have taken Mr Galeran's head off if it had managed a better grip.


Mr Galeran's boss at a shipping company in the Northern Territory, Miss Lisa Heathcote, said he was extremely lucky.


'The crocodile has been lurking around the area for the past few weeks,' she said.

'It's got him by the head and rolled him and his instincts kicked in and he's just started to punch into it. It released him, but then it came back again.


'We've walked out on the back deck and Jo's standing there with a big grin on his face and blood pouring out of him.'


Police officer Vicki Koum agreed Mr Galeran was 'very, very lucky that he managed to swim away - the outcome could have been a lot more dire.


'It's just a reminder that we live in the Territory and where there is water, we have crocodiles.'
Mr Galeran was able to treat the incident with good humour today.

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