According to authorities, a Cambodian man was killed by 40 crocodiles on Friday after falling into their enclosure on his family's reptile farm.

When the crocodile grabbed the stick he was using as a goad and drew him in, the 72-year-old was trying to transfer it out of a cage where it had laid eggs.

The leading group of reptiles then attacked him, tearing his body apart and splattering blood all over the concrete enclosure at the farm in Siem Reap.

"While he was pursuing a crocodile out of an egg-laying enclosure, the crocodile grabbed the stick, forcing him to fall into the enclosure," Mey Savry, Siem Reap commune police commander, told AFP.


"Then other crocodiles pounced, devouring him until he was dead," he added, adding that bite marks covered the man's body.

He claimed that the crocodiles bit off one of the man's arms and consumed it.

According to the police head, a two-year-old child was killed and eaten by crocodiles in 2019 after wandering into her family's reptile farm in the same area.

Several crocodile farms are in and around Siem Reap, the nearest city to the world-famous Angkor Wat monuments.

The reptiles are kept for their eggs, skins, meat, and commerce in their young.