Siassi islanders claim croc attack

A FIFTY-three-year-old woman from Aupol village, on Siassi Island, was reportedly attacked and killed by a crocodile.
The single mother, Josephine Aimot, went to Asop lagoon and was collecting shells when she was attacked.
Aimot is survived by her only son.
The villagers were alerted and went to the site to hunt down the reptile but could not find it.
But they followed the crocodile’s print and discovered Aimot’s body parts.
They could not find her torso.
And, Const Nimrod Japheth reported that 11 men, three from Gingala village, one from Pindiu in Finschhafen district and seven from inland Sialum, in Tewai-Siassi, went missing during rough weather last Thursday.
The men had boarded a 75hp banana boat to travel to Lae from Buki wharf.
The rough seas from Scollenbruch Point to Tami Gidu lighthouse saw them running out of fuel.
The change of tide swept them out to the Vitiaz Strait and forced them adrift farther west for a night and day until the locals from Tuam Island, in Siassi, saw them at 5pm on Friday.
Five locals from the island paddled on a canoe and rescued them.
The men were taken to Lablab health centre for medical examination and later put on the mv Rita and travelled to Lae on Monday.
Japheth issued a stern warning to responsible authorities to ensure all dinghy owners and operators from coastal areas in Morobe were licensed and their boats registered as a PMV to carry passengers.
“Dinghy operators need to know basic disaster and emergency rescue knowledge, skills and kits for passengers” he said.
Boat mishaps between Dampier and Vitiaz straits, including Sialum, Finschhafen and Finschhafen to Lae, have been an ongoing issue with many lives lost.