Drunk tourist rides on crocodile's back

A man ejected from a pub in Australia broke into a zoo and climbed on to the back of a crocodile named Fatso, which bit him on the leg but then let him go.

The 36-year-old man, who police said had just been thrown out of a pub for being drunk, told officials he scaled the barbed-wire fence surrounding the Broome Crocodile Park in north-west Australia on Monday night because he wanted to give the 16ft Fatso a pat.

Police said they were surprised the croc didn't inflict worse damage. "He has attempted to sit on its back and the croc has taken offence to that and has spun around and bit him on the right leg," Roger Haynes, a Broome police sergeant, said. The saltwater crocodile then let the man go, and he climbed back over the fence to safety, police said.

The man, who was a tourist from eastern Australia and whose name was not released, suffered some "very nasty lacerations" and was taken to a hospital.