MELBOURNE - An Australian woman had a lucky escape after making a wrong turn into a crocodile-infested river in the country's remote north, police said Tuesday.

The woman mistook a boat ramp for a road crossing the East Alligator River, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) east of Darwin, police said. Officers who retrieved the vehicle after the accident last Thursday found it surrounded by deadly saltwater crocodiles.

Police said the woman, from New South Wales state, had to scramble through the water as her four-wheel drive sank into the river near the world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

"She managed to get out of the car once she realised she had gone the wrong way and her car was going to sink," a police spokeswoman told national news agency AAP. "She did have to wade through the water but she didn't have to swim."

The mishap prompted Northern Territory police to warn travellers to carefully research their routes when driving in the area.

"All water crossings should be considered extremely dangerous and exceptional care should be taken to avoid similar incidents such as these, especially considering the number and size of crocodiles that inhabit remote water ways," Sergeant Ben Higgin said.

Two people have been killed in Australia this year in attacks by saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to seven metres (23 feet) long and weigh more than a tonne.