Weighing a ton and measuring 21ft (about 6.4m) from snout to tail, it had terrorised villagers for months.
But yesterday they were breathing a collective sigh of relief as the saltwater crocodile blamed for killing a local fisherman was captured.
Thought to be the largest ever caught alive, it took 100 men to haul it to the bank of the creek where it had kept its menacing presence in the southern Philippines township of Bunawan.
As the beast was bound to a trailer to be taken to its new home, a theme park nearby, local mayor Edwin Elorde, pictured measuring the catch, said: “It is big enough to swallow three men all at once.
“Once it was safely carried away we held a great feast to celebrate its capture.”
The crocodile, which had evaded numerous previous attempts to catch it, dwarfs its nearest rival for the record of largest live capture, an 18ft beast now living in an Australian nature park.
But wildlife official Ron Sumilier, who set the steel trap that caught it, warned locals not to become too complacent, saying there could be a second, and even bigger beast still lurking in the creek. - Daily Mail