Overview
- The incident occurred on Thursday when a three-year-old boy was found in the crocodile enclosure at Johnsons of Old Hurst and taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge with severe injuries described as critical but stable.
- Officers arrested a 30-year-old man at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder and later provisionally released him because he was not interviewable, and police say the suspect and the child are believed not to have known each other.
- Witnesses and media reported that the zoo owner’s wife entered the enclosure to rescue the child and that staff treated the boy before he was moved to hospital, but authorities have not confirmed how the injuries were sustained.
- The zoo closed its tropical/reptile house containing the crocodiles out of respect for the family while keeping the rest of the site open and assisting police inquiries.
- Detectives are canvassing witnesses and examining evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events and to establish whether contact with the reptiles contributed to the injuries, and reporting around a possible supervised outing for the suspect remains unverified.