Man takes selfie with ‘fake’ crocodile and gets his arm ripped apart

On 10 November, Nehemias Chipana went to the Amaya View Park Zoo in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, to celebrate his birthday with his family. But the day quickly turned from joyous to dreadfully tragic when he decided to take a selfie with what he thought was a fake crocodile. He climbed aboard, took out his smartphone and propped in a pose to get the perfect picture but regretted the move instantly.

'Fake' croc

To his surprise, the presumed plastic croc was actually a real reptile measuring more than three metres and naturally it wasn’t happy about the human on its back. In an attempt to get rid of the man, the crocodile grabbed Chipana’s arm and didn’t let go. The horrifying scene was captured by visitors of the park and has now been circulating on the internet for the whole world to see.

The shredded arm

In the video, the crocodile seems like it was adamant to get more than just a bite of the arm of its prey. However, the man somehow managed to get his limb out of the jaws of the crocodile and escape the pool with the rest of his body relatively intact. His arm, however, was bleeding excessively when he got out of the pool.

Luckily for Chipana, the zoo staff mobilised quickly, applied a tourniquet on his arm, and called the emergency services. The 68-year-old suffered several fractures and is due to receive stitches, but the bite was so severe that a tooth from the crocodile had to also be removed from his arm. As reported by The Mirror, Mercy Joy Chipada, the injured man’s daughter, said that there were no warning signs near the enclosure that indicated that the crocodile was real.