Croc Peril the Price of Peace

The success achieved by Australia in quelling unrest in the Solomon Islands, by means of the surrender of firearms through a gun amnesty, may have inadvertently given rise to a new menace on the Pacific archipelago - that of attacks by crocodiles.

People on the main island, Guadalcanal, have reported many deadly encounters since the gun amnesty came into effect last year.

At least four people are thought to have been killed in recent months, including a girl of five. Her body was found inside the carcass of a crocodile when it was caught and cut open.

The Solomons, 1,500 miles north-east of Australia, had a coup in 2000 caused by ethnic unrest on Guadalcanal.

They endured further civil violence until last year because the subsequent peace treaty allowed former militants to keep their guns. An Australian-led stabilisation mission a year ago brought calm - and 3,700 firearms were handed in.

But this meant locals no longer had high-powered weapons to keep downs the saltwater crocodiles, which are regarded as vermin by most islanders.

Graeme Cairns, head of the New Zealand contingent of the Solomons' police force, told the New Zealand Herald that he was having to deal with constant requests to shoot them.

"You don't want to kill one of those things with anything but a high-powered weapon from a distance," he said.