Armless body of student found in crocodile lake

The partly-dismembered body of a British teenage student was recovered from a Kenyan lake yesterday, apparently confirming that she had been attacked by crocodiles.

Amy Nicholls, 18, was on a gap year, when she disappeared while swimming with friends on Friday night in Lake Challa on the Tanzanian border.

She was camping near the Tsavo West National Park for a weekend with other volunteers on a conservation scheme organised by Africa & Asia Venture, a Wiltshire-based gap-year company. The company said Ms Nicholls, from Barnet, north London, and her friends went swimming in the volcanic lake only after local hotel staff assured them it was safe. They had also read in the Rough Guide to Kenya that it was a "pleasant place to swim".

But crocodile conservation experts in Kenya warned that the number of local people killed by crocodiles throughout the country was increasing and no lake could be guaranteed safe. Ms Nicholls went to Kenya at the beginning of February for the four-and-a-half month conservation and community development expedition. She was planning to study geography at Edinburgh University.

Her father, Alan, a 52-year-old retired City broker, had already flown to Kenya when her body was found. A police spokesman in Nairobi said her right arm was missing and local investigators suspected a crocodile, although the exact cause of death had not yet been established.

There has been a series of gap-year fatalities. Last year, 17-year-old Amy Ransom fell from Vietnam's highest mountain and three students on a teaching attachment, also organised by Africa & Asia Venture, died in a car crash in Malawi. Janie Bell, whose husband Peter is a director of the company, said that although Ms Nicholls and her friends were not under direct supervision when they went swimming they were a "mature and sensible group" who had taken proper advice.

She denied the lake was infested with crocodiles. "The Kenya Wildlife Service, the hotel and locals said it [the lake] was, and always has been, crocodile-free," she said. The lake has deep, clear water and barren rocky shores, and crocodiles prefer murky water surrounded by forest. But experts said it was impossible to be sure they were not present.

A spokesman for a Florida-based international conservation organisation, the Crocodile Specialist Group, said Nile crocodiles, which are responsible for most attacks on humans, were present throughout Kenya and swimming in any lake would be unwise.

Dr Richard Ferguson, a member of the group who is working in Kenya, said attacks on people were rising. "It seldom happens to tourists. It happens a lot more to local people. Over the past eight months there has been political pressure building from local communities who are having significant problems."

Matt Fletcher, author of the latest Lonely Planet Guide to Kenya, said crocodiles were known to be in Lake Jipe, about 15km from Challa, and they could easily have migrated. "That lake is not ideal for crocodiles but they can take you in any water in Kenya, even if it is a stream a foot deep,' he said. "You have to be extremely careful."

Africa & Asia Venture belongs to the Year Out Group, a government-backed gap-year body. The Year Out Group's chief executive, Richard Oliver, said Africa & Asia Venture met the necessary standards for supervision and support.

Gap-year students by their nature were adventurous people, he said. "The students are away from home and must judge risks for themselves. This group of young people seem to have done the risk-management as best they were able."