Jakarta: A 66-year-old woman was mauled to death by a huge crocodile on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, police said.

The Indonesian woman’s family and neighbours launched a search after she failed to return home from a riverside garden near the remote village of Teluk Kuali in Jambi province earlier this week.

Locals became suspicious she had been attacked after seeing a huge crocodile near a boat containing her belongings, police said.

“Residents found the lifeless victim floating on the edge of the river,” a police spokesman said.

The Indonesian archipelago is home to a vast array of exotic wildlife, including several species of crocodile that regularly attack and kill humans.

In April 2016, a Russian tourist was killed by a crocodile in the Raja Ampat islands, a popular diving site. — AFP