In 2017, a Financial Times journalist was killed in Sri Lanka after a crocodile attacked him in a lagoon while he was washing his hands during a vacation with friends.
Witnesses told reporters that Paul McClean had walked away from his group and ended up in an area that was known to have crocodiles. They said he was pulled into the water as he rinsed his hands, and was seen "waving" his hands up in the air in distress before he was dragged beneath the surface at a lagoon called Crocodile Rock near Arugam Bay.
McClean, 25, was a British national from Surrey, about 90 minutes southwest of London, and an Oxford University graduate. He graduated from Oxford with first-class honors in French in 2015 and joined the Financial Times later that year.
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In the paper, he covered Brexit and the European Union, and had recently moved back to London after living in Brussels for a couple of months.
The lagoon, which locals said was heavily populated by crocodiles, sits close to the well-known surf spot Elephant Rock on Sri Lanka's southeast coast. Sri Lankan police and the army searched the shoreline after he disappeared, and navy divers assisted.
Divers later recovered McClean's body from mud in a lagoon near the coastal village of Panama, about 225 miles (360 km) east of Colombo. A police official told Agence France-Presse that there were six or seven wounds on his right leg, and that the body was found in roughly the same place where others last saw him.
James Lamont, the Financial Times' managing editor, said at the time that the newsroom's thoughts were with McClean's family, friends, and loved ones, and that the paper was in contact with them and offering support. He described McClean as a talented, energetic, and dedicated young journalist with a strong career ahead of him.
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A Scottish tourist visiting the area, who asked not to be identified, said a British tourist had gone to a restroom near the lagoon and was grabbed by a crocodile. The witness added that some people mentioned quicksand in the lagoon, though they believed a crocodile was responsible.
Fawas Lafeer, the owner of Safa Surf School farther up the coast, said witnesses told him they saw a crocodile take McClean after he walked about 800 meters into the jungle area. Lafeer said the waterway connected to Elephant Rock was deep and murky, which made it difficult to respond, and that the navy, army, and a task force were sent to assist. He said locals told him two fishermen witnessed the attack and that this was the first time he had heard of something like this happening there, adding that Elephant Rock is typically considered safe for surfing.
An Australian man, Sean Carroll, wrote on Facebook that a crocodile had taken a tourist in Sri Lanka near a beach where a small river meets the ocean, adding that the location is called Crocodile Rock for that reason.
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