Swimmer gets close and personal with 3 metre crocodile

A woman has told how she swam into a monster crocodile and stared in its eyes during an Easter Sunday dip at Trinity Beach.

Connie Verheyen, 55, thought she had stumbled across a log covered in barnacles as she did laps inside stinger nets about 8am.



She soon realised she was face-to-face with the 3m-plus croc.

"It was scabby and I saw eyes and it started spouting water at me," she said. "I thought uh-oh, a log is not supposed to be like that, I have to get out of here. To come eye-to-eye, be so close, it was really frightening."



Fearing the croc would attack her, Ms Verheyen said she turned and fled so fast she could have "made the Olympic team".

Surf Life Saving Queensland's Ebeny Keating said the croc most likely slipped into the enclosure sometime overnight as it moved between creeks. "It looks like he's tried to swim under the boom but he couldn't get out because of the nets," she said.

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