October 04, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 04, 1429

SYDNEY, Oct 3: A seven-year-old boy broke into an animal centre and fed an 11-foot crocodile a range of native reptiles, police said on Friday.

Northern Territory police said surveillance camera footage showed the child scaling a fence to break into the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in Australia on Wednesday and killing a number of animals.

The boy, who cannot be held legally responsible because he is under 10 years of age, then tossed some of the animals into the enclosure of the 200km salt-water crocodile which is seen eating them.

“There were lizards, goannas (monitor lizards) and a turtle,” a spokeswoman for the Northern Territory police said.

The crime was discovered when staff arrived at the centre the following morning to find more than a dozen animals either dead or missing.

The parents of the boy are likely to be sued after police said the boy was too young to be held responsible.

“The fact a seven-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it’s unbelievable,” centre director Rex Neindorf said.

“We’ll be looking at suing the parents, who were supposedly in control of him at the time,” he said.—Agencies