MPUMALANGA, South Africa – In one of the most perilous recovery missions yet mounted in the region, a South African police officer was lowered by rope from a helicopter into the crocodile-thick waters of the Komati River to secure a reptile believed to have killed a missing businessman.
The operation unfolded after a 59-year-old businessman vanished when floodwaters swept his car from a low-lying bridge. Authorities later discovered human remains inside the crocodile, which they suspect belong to the victim.
According to a press statement released by the South African Police Service (SAPS), the man had been reported missing following the flooding incident. His vehicle was found trapped at a low-water bridge on the Komati River. After nearly a week of intensive searching, a team that included the SAPS search and rescue unit pinpointed a crocodile they believed had attacked the missing person.
Footage of the rescue—now widely circulated on social media—shows the acting national commissioner of the South African Police Service being airlifted along the Komati River in Mpumalanga Province. In the video, the officer secures a euthanized crocodile from the riverbank using a rope under what officials described as extremely dangerous conditions. The reptile was then lifted by helicopter and relocated, allowing police and forensic experts to recover the remains of the suspected missing person.
The recovered remains, including tissue found in the crocodile’s intestines, have been sent for DNA analysis to confirm the identity of the deceased. The dramatic mission underscores the lethal convergence of extreme weather and wildlife in parts of South Africa.