Croc Grabs Aussie Angler

An Australian man fishing in a Queensland creek must have looked a lot like bait to a 13-foot saltwater crocodile. The croc launched out of the water as the 28-year-old mine worker was casting a lure and snapped at his hand, ripping off a finger. The croc then grabbed his legs and tried to pull him into the creek as he clung to a tree. A customer in a nearby pub heard his cries and came to the rescue, the BBC reports.

"His legs were dangling in the water so the croc has grabbed them and tried pulling him into the water. He grabbed hold of a branch and yelled for help and one of his mates, who was on the pub veranda, heard him and ran down," an official tells the Cairns Post. "His mate hit the croc over the nose with a big branch causing the croc to let go." The fisherman is in a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities are searching for the crocodile. (More crocodile stories.)