According to the BBC’s report, 51-year-old Marcus McGowan entered the water with a group of friends 28 kilometers off Haggerstone Island, near Cape York in Qeensland, where he was on vacation.
Explaining that an animal attacked him from behind while swimming, McGowan said that at first he thought it might be a shark, but later realized it was a crocodile.
McGowan was injured in the hand while repelling an alligator thought to be a cub.
In the last months, the news that crocodiles, which are common in the north of Australia, attack people, were reflected in the press.
In February, a man and his dog were attacked by a crocodile at a shipyard north of the state city of Cairns, and a crocodile measuring more than 4 meters in length was shot dead.
Earlier this month, the limbs of a 65-year-old fisherman were found in the stomach of a crocodile on the banks of the Kennedy River.
Since 1974, when crocodile hunting was banned in the country, the crocodile population is estimated to have increased from 5,000 to around 30,000.