Castro's Crocodile Bites Arm 'on the Wrong Side of the Glass'

Victim was giving a speech at a Stockholm aquarium
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2019 3:50 PM CDT
Fidel Castro's Crocodile Bites Man in Sweden
Cuban crocodiles rest inside their enclosure at the Skansen zoo and aquarium in Stockholm. The zoo sent 10 hatchlings to Cuba for introduction into the wild.   (AP Photo/David Keyton)

One of Fidel Castro's crocodiles bit a man who, police said, "had his arm on the wrong side of the security glass" at a Stockholm aquarium. The victim, who is in his 70s, had climbed up to make a speech next to the crocodile enclosure during a private party, the Independent reports. A spokesperson for the Skansen Aquarium said the man was standing "with his back against the crocodiles with his arm stretched back over the protective barrier when the crocodile bit him." The aquarium's owner told CNN that the crocodile held on for about 10 seconds. Three doctors were among the party guests and tended to the man until an ambulance arrived.

The aquarium's two Cuban crocodiles are named Castro and Hillary; it isn't clear which one did the biting. The Cuban ruler, who died in 2016, gave them in the 1970s to a Soviet cosmonaut who took them to Moscow and kept them in his flat until his wife objected. The Skansen's owner acquired them in 1981. Those two crocodiles have produced 11 more, and the aquarium has sent some back to Cuba. The extent of the victim's injuries was not released, but the Skansen said it will take steps to prevent another attack. (More crocodile stories.)

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