Snorkeller killed by crocodile

A young American woman killed by a crocodile at an Indian resort was a talented artist with a great career ahead of her, according to colleagues and friends.

A US State Department spokesman has confirmed that 25-year-old New Jersey woman Lauren Failla was killed by a crocodile while snorkelling in India's Andaman Islands last month.

Failla was vacationing at a Havelock Island resort with her boyfriend when she went missing on April 28. Her body was found two days later.

US State Department spokesman Michael Tran confirmed the death to the Daily Record newspaper. Tran said Indian authorities continue to investigate.

Local experts originally doubted the story of the crocodile attack - despite the boyfriend's eyewitness account - saying the reptiles were not known to frequent the region's waters.

However, saltwater crocodiles are the world's largest crocs - sometimes exceeding five metres and weighing more than a ton - and can swim great distances at sea.

Tran said roughly 24 crocodile attacks on people have been reported in the islands over the last 25 years, including four fatalities. Tran said he didn't know the date of the last fatal attack.

The nearest sanctuary to Havelock Island appears to be the Lohabarack Crocodile Sanctuary, about 45 sea miles away.

The Andaman Islands, located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, are a low-lying island group and were ravaged by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Lauren Failla had just completed a master's degree at the Sotheby's Art Institute in London.

Her death is a second tragic blow to her family. It comes four years after her older sister Emily was killed in a rock-climbing accident in Washington.

- AP