Wednesday, November 14, 2007
More soldiers drafted in to hunt for hundreds of runaway crocodiles in central Vietnam
November 13, 2007 Tuesday 9:00 AM GMT
More soldiers drafted in to hunt for hundreds of runaway crocodiles in
central Vietnam
DATELINE: HANOI Vietnam
Authorities intensified their search Tuesday for hundreds of crocodiles
on the loose in central Vietnam after they escaped from a farm during
heavy weekend floods.
Soldiers, militiamen and local residents have captured or killed 67
crocodiles, but an unknown number continue to pose a danger to villagers
in Khanh Hoa province, said Nguyen Nhu Long of the provincial military
command.
"We have sent in more soldiers to search for the animals because we are
worried that they may crawl into people's houses in search of food,"
Long said. "They haven't been fed for several days now."
The reptiles escaped when flood waters knocked down a fence surrounding
the state-owned Khanh Viet Farm, a popular tourist attraction that
housed 5,000 crocodiles.
Several hundred people live in the immediate area of the farm.
Soldiers wielding AK-47 assault rifles shot dead 11 crocodiles as they
crawled up a river bank on Monday, Long said, and villagers killed four
others.
Vietnam has more than 100,000 farmed crocodiles, which are raised for
their skin and meat, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development.
Meanwhile, owners of the Khanh Viet Farm have offered a reward of up to
$100US to anyone who returns one of the missing reptiles, which the
company exports to several countries, including Japan and Australia.
"It's a very good business," said company spokesman Le Tien Anh. "We
were planning to expand the farm to 10,000 crocodiles next year."
Heavy rains triggered the weekend flooding that killed 23 people in
central Vietnam, disaster officials said. Water levels in area rivers
remain extremely high, and more rains were expected Tuesday, the
national weather forecast center said.
Floods and typhoons have killed 215 people across central and northern
Vietnam since early October.
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