Kota Kinabalu (The Star/ANN) - A 74-year-old woman beat off a crocodile which attacked her while she was crossing a drain in Kota Belud, about 90km from here.
The gutsy Luayoh Kindurus was shocked to see the crocodile snap at her feet as she was walking across the drain on a wooden plank.
"I was so scared. I swung my cane at the crocodile's head as it tried to pull me down and screamed for help.
"But no one was around," she said from her hospital bed in Kota Belud when recalling the 5pm incident on Tuesday.
"I think I hit the crocodile's eyes and it let go of my left foot," said Luayoh, who was discharged yesterday.
Although she needed stitches to her foot, Luayoh said she did not feel any pain after the incident.
She washed off the blood and walked back to her house about a kilometre away.
Her family immediately rushed her to the hospital.
She said that she was on her way to tend to her family's padi field.
Luayoh, who believes that the crocodile was shorter than a metre, is the second-known victim of a crocodile attack in the area.
In 2010, Saidah Saman, 50, used a pail to fight off a crocodile which attacked her while she was collecting water at Sungai Merbau. The crocodile was later captured.
Luayoh's family members have alerted the Wildlife Department.
She also said that a week before the incident she had seen a crocodile while other villagers also claimed that there may be more crocodiles in the area known locally as Parit Jepun.