This is the astonishing moment police in South Africa swooped to airlift a huge 15ft crocodile suspected of eating a missing businessman .

An officer dangling from a rope recovered the 500kg reptile from the banks of the Komati River during a helicopter search-and-rescue mission in Mpumalanga province on Saturday.

Captain Johan “Pottie” Potgieter, who was lowered from a helicopter to secure and pick up the reptile, told the News24 website: “The sharp end of a crocodile is not the best place to approach it.”

Potgieter, a member of the national police force's diving unit, said that body parts and shoes were found inside the animal.…