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‘Satan has taken me’ says fisher in croc attack

By Aaron Smith

PNG fisherman George Gibu “thought Satan had taken me” when he was grabbed from behind by a croc last week.

The 41-year-old father of eight from the Western Province Treaty Village of Tais was fishing for barramundi up to his chest in water about noon on Thursday, November 1.

He was walking backwards dragging his fishing net back to his dinghy.
The incident occurred near the neighbouring village of Buzi which is almost opposite Boigu on the PNG side of the border.
He didn’t see the croc come at him from behind, which grabbed him by the thigh, biting down to bone and breaking his femur.
“When I felt the bite on my leg, I reached down and felt the jaws around me and knew it was a croc - I tried to pull him off but I
couldn’t,” Mr Gibu told Torres News this week from his hospital bed on Thursday Island.
The croc then started to pull him under but Mr Gibu, still holding his fishing net, was kept afloat by the buoy.
“He pulled me down and waves were crashing over me so I reached up and shouted, Lord save me, Satan has taken me,” Mr Gibu said.
The croc then let go and Mr Gibu started towards the beach, but then the croc came back and grabbed his knee and again started
to drag him under.
Mr Gibu again shouted out Lord save me, “and the croc let go again,” he said.
But the croc came back a third time and took Mr Gibu by the calf, again biting him to the bone, and for a third time he screamed
out Lord save me from Satan.
“Then he let go and didn’t come back.
“I got to the beach and walked along until some balas from Daru came and took me by dinghy straight to Boigu.”
From there he was medivaced to Thursday Island hospital where he is in a stable condition.
Mr Gibu is concerned for his eight children aged one to 18 who are alone in his village and is looking forward to getting home to his family as soon as he is fit and able.
Mr Gibu said he sees the world differently now and will appreciate every day above ground, or in this case above water.
“This has changed my life, I have no doubt the Lord saved me from Satan,” he said.
When Torres News asked to take his photo, Mr Gibu, yet to have his broken and lacerated leg set in plaster insisted on standing up. The Lord sure make our PNG balas tough.