A crocodile was killed by snipers on Saturday to recover evidence of Friday's tragedy in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

 

The crocodile was shot dead at 8 PM Saturday with approval of the local forestry department.

 

The snipers lured the crocodiles with pork and shoot one that crawled ashore to death with seven bullets.

 

Legal medical experts anatomized body of the creature and found remains of a human being, therefore confirmed the missing child was eaten by the crocodiles.

 

The tragedy occurred at about 6 PM on Friday, when a pupil surnamed Liu and three other children from Xiantian Primary School climbed over the fence of a crocodile pool which had been temporarily closed.

 

The children shot the animals with catapults and beat them with wooden sticks. One of the irritated alligators bit Liu's clothes and dragged him into water, where he was eaten by a swarm of alligators.

 

The pool, which had been used to stage crocodile shows, is located in a recreational park in a holiday resort called Yintan, or Silver Beach, in Beihai city of Guangxi. It had been sealed off for auction.

 

Local residents said owner of the park had hired a keeper for the crocodiles. It is not known why the man was not present when the accident happened.

 

The manager and the keeper of the alligator pool have been held by local police for further investigation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2007)