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BEIJING - A COURT has ordered a holiday resort and a crocodile keeper to pay almost 220,000 yuan (S$43,400) in compensation to the parents of a nine-year-old boy who was eaten by the reptiles last year.
Liu Haiyang and his three friends from Beihai, in the southern region of Guangxi, had climbed over a fence around a pool used to stage crocodile shows.
They taunted the reptiles with sticks and catapults.
'One of the irritated reptiles caught Liu's clothes and dragged him into the water, where he was eaten by a swarm of crocodiles,' state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday.
Crocodile keeper Liu Jiazhen and the Detian Fishermen's Cabin, the holiday resort that staged the crocodile shows, were held largely responsible for the death, the Yinhai district court in Beihai ruled.
'Though the pool bore clear signs that it was off-limits to visitors, the crocodile keeper was not at the site, the entrance to the area was unlocked and the fence around the pool - which was only 55cm high in some sections - did little to keep out visitors,' the court ruled.
Following the April 20 tragedy, one of the reptiles was shot dead, the pool drained and 11 other crocodiles shipped to a zoo in Guangxi's capital, Nanning.
REUTERS
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