The remains of a man who is believed to have been attacked by crocodiles were found in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, on Thursday.

Workers with the Puerto Vallarta water and sewage utility found a decapitated body with no limbs next to the Ameca River in Las Juntas, a community in the north of the coastal city near the border with Nayarit.

The victim was aged between 35 and 40, according to a report by the newspaper Tribuna de la Bahía. Authorities will attempt to establish his identity with DNA testing.

The discovery of the body came just over two weeks after a leg with crocodile bites was found on a Nuevo Vallarta beach near the mouth of the Ameca River. Authorities believe the limb may correspond to the torso located on Thursday.

Crocodile attacks occur periodically in Puerto Vallarta, where the reptiles inhabit the Ameca River and other waterways. They are sometimes seen on local beaches, where tourists from the United States were attacked while swimming last month and in July 2021.

One crocodile measuring over three meters was sighted in the shallows of the ocean and on Playa de Oro, a beach in Puerto Vallarta’s northern hotel zone, last Saturday, prompting lifeguards to order swimmers out of the water. Local authorities managed to capture the croc, which was later released in the Ameca River.

The news website Vallarta Independiente predicted that it would soon return to the same area where it was caught because there are even larger specimens in the river that force smaller crocodiles out of their territory.

With reports from Tribuna de la Bahía and Vallarta Independiente