A little boy was dragged under water and mauled to death by a crocodile while playing in the shallow part of a river.
Julio Otero Fernández, 8, was in knee-deep water in the Matina River, near his home in Limón, Costa Rica, when the horror attack happened.
His parents, Don Julio and Margini Fernández Flore, were forced to watch as the reptile ‘floated away with their son’s body’.
Margini told local media it would be ‘impossible’ to stay in their home because ‘in every corner of the house we find something that reminds us of Julito’.
She said: ‘We can’t be here, because we spend every time remembering how nice it was to have him here with us.
‘It is very difficult for us, so we are going to have to get out of here.
‘Whenever we remember what happened, it is impossible not to shed tears.’
She and her husband are hoping to take their four other children, aged between three and 16, to live in Nicaragua.
It has been a few days since the tragedy but Julio’s body has still not been found.
Heavy rains have made it difficult for search teams, who say it is impossible to know which crocodile killed the boy.
Regional director of the Limón Red Cross, Tatiana Díaz, explained they believe Julio may have been taken to the animal’s burrow or cave underwater.
She said: ‘But we don’t know which one of them it is.
‘We have implemented a hook with a strip to see if it pulls something, but to no avail.
‘It’s very difficult to focus on a single point.’
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