A crocodile fled away from a private wildlife park and made its cruise Sunday (August 21st) to a popular sea resort in south China, scaring away a large number of swimmers.

A swimmer surnamed Deng first spotted a black floating "thing" more than long when she was swimming off the famous Silver Beach in Beihai City of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. She screamed "shark" for help.

Lifeguards immediately dispersed swimmers and drove motorboats to prevent the crocodile from hurting tourists. They finally captured it after three hours of struggle.

Mayor Tang Chengliang of the city has urged immediate investigation into the accident. The crocodile was found to have run away from a private wild park which was closed for auction. Investigators said the crocodile was expected to crawl through a water pipeline to the sea when the park drained the wildlife pool days ago.

A villager near the beach said a worker of the wildlife part came to his village the day before, asking for help to catch fled crocodiles. "Nobody knows how many crocodiles have fled," he added.

Editor: Wing