April 2, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 18,1423

TAIPEI, April 1: Crocodiles in a Taiwan wildlife park began behaving strangely on Sunday prior to the strong earthquake that rocked the island, local media reported on Monday.

Park authorities and visitors were taken aback when about 1,000 crocodiles in the park started making excited grunting noises, raising their heads and scrambling to reach higher ground, according to the United Daily News.

The incident occurred about 20 minutes before the 6.8-magnitude quake on the Richter scale jolted the island on Sunday afternoon.

Similar behaviour in crocodiles has been observed in the past prior to earthquakes, with the reaction of crocodiles stronger and often earlier the bigger the quake, a vet at the wildlife park said.

A week before a 7.6-magnitude tremor struck central Taiwan on Sept 21, 1999, killing 2,400 people, crocodiles also began acting strangely, he said.

Five people were killed and 275 injured after Sunday’s earthquake, an official at the National Fire Administration said on Monday.—dpa